NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Mobile Applications for the Masses

It was in the middle of last year that we decided to launch the mobile award as an advocacy and innovation reference platform, and named it mBillionth to work towards enabling mobile as a tool to make every critical content and service reach the bottom of the pyramid-the billionth person. With rigorous exercise across South Asia through various partnerships and help, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Consider this: We got more than...

Source

LiveMint (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Creating a Consumption Class Out of the Poor

The late management guru CK Prahalad told us that there is a market at the bottom of the pyramid. Indian companies discovered that with the Re1 shampoo sachet. Ratan Tata believes that there is a huge market for the bottom-of-the-line Nano. But there is something missing here: the bottom below the bottom of the economic pyramid, where the fight is for the next meal. Subsistence living means there’s no market. This is job No 1 for our anti-p...

Source

DNA India (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Microfinance Mission Accomplished? Hardly, Expert Says

The recent decision by its board to close Seattle nonprofit Unitus and shift its resources to "other strategic areas" prompted Adam Sorensen, a consultant working for the International Finance Corporation, to write a response questioning the actions. Here’s his personal perspe...

Source

The Seattle Times (link opens in a new window)

Media Hype and the Reality of ?New? India

In a week when Delhi’s new "world-class" airport opened for business and the Indian Space Research Organisation celebrated the successful launch of five new satellites, we had a stark reminder of another India that, increasingly, many Indians feel embarrassed to talk about. A United Nations-backed study by Oxford University revealed that poverty in at least eight Indian States - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, C...

Source

The Hindu (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Frontier Investments: Focused on Mobile Banking, Microinsurance & Housing

ACCION International’s Frontier Investments Group is a double bottom line, venture equity fund focused on catalyzing a new approach to microfinance. It invests in new technologies and disruptive business models that can powerfully enhance the way financial services are delivered to the poor. Building upon microfinance’s success in "banking the unb...

Source

Microfinance Focus (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Uncategorized

Tags

housing

SME Lending: A Test to Identify Entrepreneurs

1. Do you like taking things apart to see how they work? 2. Do you enjoy going to parties? 3. Given five seconds, how long a sequence of numbers can you memorize? If your answers to these and about 150 other questions add up, you could run a small business in Nairobi. Or Lima. Or Bogotá. All because a new test identifies the traits that make for successful entrepreneurs in developing economies. The Entrepreneurial Finan...

Source

Bloomberg BusinessWeek (link opens in a new window)

Finance Minister to Banks: Reach out to Villages Via New Technologies

New Delhi Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today asked banks to adopt new technologies, such as mobile banking and telephony, to reach out to the rural population and make economic growth inclusive and sustainable. "... We have to use new technologies and IT to make banking services available and within reach of rural people at large through the services of business correspondents, mobile banking vans, mobile telephony services and no frill accounts, etc," Mukherj...

Source

Express India (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Rural Business Incubators: Tool for Inclusive Growth

BIPIN and Ratan, in their twenties, manage a small business that sells food-items, rice, chapathi, vegetables, nan etc, between 10 am and 3 pm every day in Mayur Vihar, in New Delhi. They make a profit of approximately Rs 2500 (US $56) per day. They have no bank account. There is no registration with the municipality. Their business has no official and legal permission. Though the food is cooked and served in un-hygienic condition, every time their roadside hotel has a waitin...

Source

The Herald of India (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia