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

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’...

Source

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...

Source

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 .

Source

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,...

Source

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 ...

Source

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...

Source

Philanthropy News Digest (link opens in a new window)

Rockefeller Foundation Gives $500,000 to Develop ’Social’ Stock Market

A social stock exchange where ethical investors can trade shares in worthy enterprises could be set up under plans announced on Friday. The exchange would aim to combine profitable trading with social or environmental missions. Clean technologies, healthcare, first world development projects and help for disadvantaged communities would be included in the exchange. The Rockefeller Foundation, one of the world’s best-known philanthropic organisations, is p...

Source

The Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Engineers Without Borders Bring Tech to Villages Without Power

A group of volunteer engineers are finishing the design for a home-brewed wind turbine that will bring electricity to off-the-grid Guatemalan villages by this summer. After the U.S. engineers finish the design, local workers in the town of Quetzaltenango will manufacture the small-scale turbine. It will produce 10-15 watts of electricity, enough to charge a 12-volt battery that can power simple devices like LED lights.They’re replacing kerosene lamps, if anything at all,&q...

Source

Wired (link opens in a new window)