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

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report on Women and Entrepreneurship Released

WELLESLEY, Mass., May 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Women’s entrepreneurship matters -- women are creating and running businesses around the world, contributing to economies that represent more than 70% of the world’s population and 93% of global GDP (2007). Women’s entrepreneurship is a key contributor to economic growth in low/middle income countries, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean according to The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2007 Report on ...

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KRON 4 (link opens in a new window)

Rebooting the Indian green revolution

Ajit Singh, a farmer in the poor northern state of Uttar Pradesh, had never seen a computer until four years ago when ITC, the Indian agribusiness-to-hotels conglomerate, installed a PC in his village, Kurthia. Now the thin 47-year-old farmer visits the ITC station, known as an e-choupal after the Hindi term for gathering place, every day for online access to news-papers, crop prices, weather forecasts and farming techniques. As ITC’s village manager...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

New Frontiers: Story at the Bottom of the Pyramid

By Anisha Motwani Rural India seems to be the latest flavour in town. From finance ministers to corporate India across industries, everyone seems to be shifting focus to the bottom of the pyramid. All boardroom discussions are getting centred on finding ways and means to grab a share of this lucrative pie. Numbers look seductive with statistics and data giving enough evidence of volume potential... smaller ticket sizes but more buyers...

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The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

UK Government and UN challenge Private Sector to decrease global poverty

London, 6 May 2008?Joining the Business Call to Action, a dozen companies today announced concrete initiatives that apply core business expertise, utilizing their technology and innovative spirit to tackle the multiple challenges of poverty. The announcements were made at the Business Call to Action event, hosted by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Kemal Dervi?, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and with the participation of more than 80 global bus...

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UNDP - DFID (link opens in a new window)

Banks Yet to Reach Bottom of Wealth Pyramid

By Preeti R Iyer & Aniruddha Ghosh For all the noise that it has generated, usage of technology to achieve financial inclusion is still far from what is being desired. Lenders such as Citi and GE Money have withdrawn from advancing small-ticket ...

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The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

?It?s Now the Era of Micro-Innovators?

For more than a decade now, Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad, or C. K. Prahalad, has been the best-known management guru from India. Professor of Strategy at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Prahalad shot to fame with his book Competing for the Future, which he co-authored with Gary Hamel. Since then, Prahalad, who studied and taught at IIM Ahmedabad before moving (back) to the US to join the University of Michigan as Assistant Professor, has written four more books, including ...

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Business Today (link opens in a new window)

Extending Financial Services to Latin America’s Poor

By Luis Alberto Moreno The president of Inter-American Development Bank argues that achieving greater financial democracy is crucial for achieving greater inclusiveness, improving social cohesion, and generating broad-based growth.? ---- Economic development, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is for people-for citizens. If the benefits of economic growth fail to reach a majority, in the long run there ca...

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The McKinsey Quarterly (link opens in a new window)

What Keeps Indian Enterprises from Growing

In the last one week, I have had the privilege of interacting with over 300 entrepreneurs from the small and medium enterprises segment. 70% of them have been in business for at least a decade; 40% have completed two decades. Yet they are still small - in revenues, profits, employees. 15% have global aspirations but do not know how to achieve that goal. Small and medium enterprises account for 80% of Indian businesses (3 million small and medium enterprises and counting...

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Harvard Business Blog (link opens in a new window)