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

A sunrise industry coming up in West Delhi?s Uttam Nagar

New Delhi: Shyama Kumari has a new-found sense of confidence. The 20-year-old college goer taught part-time at a local school for two years and saved Rs8,000, which she has put in a bank account. Her banker? The local drug store. Kumari isn?t the only one who banks in a shop and shops in a bank. Around 1,400 people in her neighbourhood, Uttam Nagar?a lower middle class colony in West Delhi?have, through shops that include grocers and chemists, opened accounts that now have between Rs...

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Live Mint: Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Gates Steps Down from Microsoft to Guide Foundation

Friday June 27, Bill Gates will step down from his full-time job at Microsoft, the company he co-founded with his childhood friend, Paul Allen. Gates said he will focus his efforts on improving the health and living conditions of the world’s neediest people through the world’s biggest charitable foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan has more from Los Angeles. Bill Gates may be the world’s most successful college dropout.? More ...

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News VOA (link opens in a new window)

Sun looks to emerging markets with new division

Sun has launched an new division to drive sales in emerging markets such as South and Eastern Europe, Latin America, India and Greater China. The vendor has also embarked on a series of management changes to realign the business with its latest plan for growth. The new Emerging Markets division will be headed up by Denis Heraud, Sun’s senior vice president of A...

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Channel Web (link opens in a new window)

Sun looks to emerging markets with new division

Sun has launched an new division to drive sales in emerging markets such as South and Eastern Europe, Latin America, India and Greater China. The vendor has also embarked on a series of management changes to realign the business with its latest plan for growth. The new Emerging Markets division will be headed up by Denis Heraud, Sun’s senior vice president of A...

Source

Channel Web (link opens in a new window)

Dell’s Quest for Growth: to Offset Domestic Slowdown Company Chases Latin America

The shortest distance between a U.S. shopper and the product he or she craves: credit, preferably of the card variety. For many Latin American consumers hoping to get their hands on a personal computer, the barrier is the same - or more precisely, it’s the lack of credit. Really, nobody but a couple companies will finance consumers, said Peter Weigandt, head of Dell Inc.’s business in Latin America. Dell and other computer makers are develo...

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Statesman (link opens in a new window)

Down to business

It’s already launched in Kenya, Afghanistan and Tanzania. And now a mobile money-transfer service from Vodafone is to reach 40 million customers in India. Meanwhile, Microsoft Innovation Centres in Rwanda, Nigeria, Uganda and Morocco are set to provide aspiring business people with the technology to launch new products. And in India, personalised commercial information is being texted to the mobile phones of thousands of farmers in their own language. These three groundbreakin...

Micro-Franchises Provide Business Solutions for Poverty

It’s no secret in the business world - if you want to start your own business with little risk, you buy a franchise. For decades, successful American businesses have been franchised, allowing would-be entrepreneurs a safe place to begin their business. Thanks to a team of BYU researchers and developers, the success of franchises is being used to bring people out of poverty through a new initiative called micro-franchise. For years, economic development practitioner...

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BYU NewsNet (link opens in a new window)

Emerging markets will be key to growth

Emerging economies will become a bigger slice of Procter & Gamble’s business in the next decade as it looks to ameliorate the effects of the US slowdown by tapping into the fast-growing markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Bob McDonald, chief operating officer of P&G, said that the consumer goods company had built strong positions in Russia and China but was finding India, a stronghold of UK-based rival Unilever, a tougher nut to crack. India is imp...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)