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Research Finds Change in Rural Consumer Patterns
NEW DELHI: Indian consumers’ earning, saving and consumption patterns are rapidly changing. So much so that a recent report by the Centre for Macro Consumer Research (CMCR) of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) predicts that by 2015, incomes of more than 42% rural households will shift from agriculture to non-farm sources like construction, retail, trading et al. "The rural landscape is undergoing a steady but dramatic change. While there is a shift...
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Rich I.P.O. Brings Controversy to SKS Microfinance
An Indian company with rich American backers is about to raise up to $350 million in a stock offering closely watched by philanthropists around the world, showing that big profits can be made from small helping-hand loans to poor cowherds and basket weavers. The company, SKS Microfinance, is one of the biggest players in the field known as ...
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- South Asia
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The New Normal: Haiti After the Earthquake
It’s amazing how quickly things can return to normal. You wouldn’t know it from watching CNN, but big segments of life in Haiti, including in the capital, Port au Prince, which suffered the greatest damage, have returned to what would have been considered normal in the days and months before the quake. There is plenty of destruction still evident, and tens or even hundreds of thousands of people living in tents or under blue plastic tarpaulins throu...
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- Latin America
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SKS Microfinance: Giant squid, ?Devta? or Just a Business?
I’ve written in this space before asking why my BlackBerry stayed on the grid in a remote mountain village where basic banking was missing. A few years earlier I had argued for a model that would make financial services as ubiquitous as paan masala , glucose biscuits and shampoo sachets in remote rural India. So now when this comes to pass in the form of an initial public offering (IPO) from a microfinance firm that has made capital availab...
- Region
- South Asia
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Marketing to the Poor: Lessons from Nestl?s Strategy in the Amazon
I came across a news alert on CSRwire a couple of weeks ago posing an interesting question: ’Is it bad to bring American candy to remote villages in the Amazon - or worse to keep it from them?’ It featured an article by sustainability journalist Marc Gunther which explored the ethical dilemmas of marketing to the poor as highlighted by the launch of Nestlé’s new marketing strategy in Brazil - a ’floating supermarket’ designed to reach isolated riverside communities ...
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Would You Like a Soda with Your Small Loan?
SKS Microfinance, India’s largest microfinance institution (MFI), aims to raise up to $353 million in a closely watched IPO that has already drawn top anchor investors. As India’s largest MFI and the first to do an IPO, SKS is answering lots of questions : Should MFIs charge ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Innovating Solutions for India’s Challenges
Last week, Kapil Sibal unveiled the prototype of a Rs 1,500 tablet pc aimed at providing an ultra-low-cost solution targeted towards making computer literacy accessible to those who are at the bottom of the pyramid. The minister believes that not only it is possible to see a commercial launch of this prototype as early as in 2011, but also a price-point which could eventually be as low as Rs 500. A few months ago, Tata Group launched an ultra-l...
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- South Asia
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For Love or for Money? SKS Microfinance IPO Stirs Debate
MUMBAI, India (AP) - An Indian company that makes tiny loans to villagers aims to raise up to $354 million in an initial public offering, a move critics fear will encourage the microfinance lender - India’s largest - to put shareholders above the poor it serves. SKS Microfinance’s share sale, launched Wednesday, has already drawn the ire of one of the leading lights in the field. A publicly traded company’s traditional obligation is...
- Region
- South Asia