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

Procter & Gamble’s Partnership with Non-profit organisations is Proof that Local Markets can be Won

Procter & Gamble’s partnership with non-profit organisations is proof that local markets can be won over to new products. In 2003, a $20 million R&D and marketing project at Procter & Gamble (P&G) had reached a financial impasse after eight years of work. A decade earlier, the company had spotted an opportunity to supply a water-purifying product to the developing world, which, it was hoped, would increase the company’s share of the mas...

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World Business (link opens in a new window)

Interview with Gelber Prize Winner Paul Collier

LONDON - I think that economists have a responsibility to write in such a way to be read by ordinary people and by political leaders, the bearded and bespectacled Oxford professor says, in a quiet and careful tone, from his home in France. So I wrote a book that’s very readable. That may not sound like a humble claim, but then Paul Collier has very clearly been read by a lot of people lately. His book, The Bottom Billion, argues plainly and often ru...

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Globe and Mail (link opens in a new window)

The In-betweeners

A lot is expected of the middle class in emerging economies. But they just want a quiet life. Two jars of chickpeas, 20 bars of soap, three packs of cigarettes and six sachets of shampoo-all these items and more are in stock at a village store five hours away from the Indian city of Hyderabad. It is the leanest of inventories, and yet it supports great hopes. Combined with a scrap-metal business, the store is just enough to lift its owners into the ranks of India’...

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The Economist (link opens in a new window)

4 Lessons to Learn from Tata’s Nano

The announcement in January by Tata Motors of its newest car, the Nano, was revealing on many levels. The announcement generated extensive coverage and commentary, but just about everyone missed the Nano’s real significance, which goes far beyond the car itself. But, OK, let’s start with the car itself - particularly the price. At about $2,500 retail, the Nano is the most inexpensive car in the world. Its closest competitor, the Maruti 800, made in India by Maruti Udyog, sells...

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Business Week Online (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

A Tightening Jobs Market is a Hugely Powerful Engine for Poverty Reduction

D. Murali and G. Padmanaban Chennai: Much has been talked about ?fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’. But do we find big corporates discovering the ?fortune’? Does it make good economics for the companies? At the very bottom of the pyramid there are no fortunes to be made because purchasing power is so low, says Mr Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University .

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The Hindu (link opens in a new window)

Social Innovation Fellows Program: Providing World-Class Support to the Next Great Generation of Wor

This year, Pop!Tech will select up to twenty visionary change agents - chosen from around the world and from many different social-innovation fields - to participate in a unique, cutting-edge Fellows program designed to accelerate their impact. Fellows will participate (all-expenses paid) in the 2008 Pop!Tech conference, the visionary annual gathering of thought leaders and change agents that will convene October 22-25, 2008 in Camden, Maine. Fellows will also take part in a unique,...

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Pop!Tech (link opens in a new window)

Planet vs. People: A Green Dilemma

Welcome, dear readers, to the court of the law of unintended consequences. Britain is mulling tougher labeling standards to make it more difficult for imported food to carry an organic label. The idea is to make it less appealing to air-freight in fruits and veggies from Africa, with their aircraft emissions, in order to save the developing world from the ravages of global warming somewhere down the road. But one group may come out the loser much sooner: poor farmers in ...

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The Wall Street Journal - Environmental Capital (link opens in a new window)

Citi Foundation Launches $11.2 Million International Microfinance Program

The Citi Foundation has announced a three-year, $11.2 million program in partnership with the Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network in Washington, D.C., to advance the integration of microfinance into the mainstream economies...

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Philanthropy News Digest (link opens in a new window)