-
A flourishing slum
Around 6am, the squealing of copulating rats?signalling a night-long verminous orgy on the rooftops of Dharavi, a slum in Mumbai?gives way to the more cheerful sound of chirruping sparrows. Through a small window in Shashikant (?Shashi?) Kawale’s rickety shack, daylight seeps. It reveals a curly black head outside. Further inspection shows that this is attached to a man’s sleeping body, on a slim metal ledge, 12 feet above the ground. With maybe a million residents, crammed in...
-
From Riches to Rags
China and India are poorer than we thought; rich countries produce even more than we realised. Those are the obvious conclusions from an unprecedented exercise, carried out by a World Bank-led coalition. The ?International Comparison Program? attempts to compare the size of the world?s disparate economies on the basis of purchasing power. On this basis, China?s output is just 9 per cent of global gross domestic product, down by more than a third from the previous estimate of 14 per...
-
Tata small car set to offer 25 kmpl mileage
Ratan Tata and the Tata group have for months zealously kept a tight lid on the details of the Rs 1-lakh car that is slated to roll out of Tata Motors’ Singur factory in June 2008. But on Tuesday, the shroud came off in singular circumstances. It’s an eco-car with a 25 km-per-litre mileage on petrol, meets every international standard and specification, including Euro-4 norms. Acceleration wise, it’s the same as a Maruti 800. That’s exactly how RA Mashelkar...
-
Investment in health, education, a must
By G. Chandrashekhar Thani Oruvanukku Unav(u)ilaienil, Jagattinai Azhithiduvom’ was the war cry against hunger the celebrated Tamil poet Mahakavi Subramaniya Bharathiar unleashed almost a century ago. Loosely translated, it means, Even if a single person goes without food, we shall destroy the world. One can well imagine the fervour the maverick poet-patriot brought to the subject of poverty and hunger. What has the world come to in the last m...
-
Let me in!
By Ian Callaghan What makes a ticket hot? Novelty and publicity are two essential ingredients, but real incandescence only comes with scarcity. When a United Nations Year of Microfinance in 2005 was followed in 2006 by the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Grameen Bank and its founder, Dr. Muhammed Yunus, the world got to know about the supposedly esoteric business of providing financial services to the poor. By the time Mexican microfinance bank...
-
The Changing Face Of Microfinance Funding
By Elizabeth Littlefield In the three decades since Muhammed Yunus gave his first $27 loans to women in Chittagong, Bangladesh, the microfinance industry has come a long way. What began as a collection of individual non-governmental organizations funded by development donors has become a professional business offering not just credit, but a full range of banking services to poor people. Hundreds of microfinance institutions have matured and become profitable. Local...
-
Profit and Poverty: Why It Matters
By Michael Chu Through the ages, we have come to associate profit with greed and serving the poor with self-sacrifice. Accordingly, now that the outstanding performance of leading microfinance banks has inserted banking at the base of the pyramid as an integral part of emerging-markets finance, socially conscious investors are starting to agonize over earning returns while serving the poor. By focusing on their motivations in helping the poor rather than on poverty itself, th...
-
Microfinance Fever
A lot of people are chasing returns in barefoot banking. Here’s what you should know before you follow. Maria Guadalupe Licona, of Tulancingo, Mexico needed to expand her herd. So she borrowed $100 for six months from a microlender that charges on average 40% interest and purchased additional sheep and pigs. The money came from somebody like J. Alex Hartzler. He and his partners sold their Web Clients ad business to online marketing firm ValueClick (nasdaq: ...
The Best of NextBillion in Your Inbox Each Week!
Subscribe to NB Notes for news, jobs & on-the-ground insights from the world of emerging markets business.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.