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

Who in the world is entrepreneurial?

So what are the best countries for entrepreneurs now? Where might American entrepreneurs think about setting up overseas? And where should they keep an eye out for global competitors? Some of the stars - such as Iceland and Denmark - might surprise you. Laggards include India. When Rodrigo Veleso launched ONE World Enterprises in Los Angeles last year, he quickly grasped why entrepreneurship was surging in the U.S. Within a week I had formed an LLC, incorporated in Delawar...

Source

CNN Money (link opens in a new window)

Editorial – Lighting the Way

Sometimes thinking small can get things done. To bring artificial light to an isolated village or refugee camp could require building an enormous hydroelectric dam, followed by laying hundreds of miles of cable. Or it could take the donation of a $10 solar flashlight. As Will Connors and Ralph Blumenthal reported in The Times recently, the entrepreneur Mark Bent, through his company SunNight Solar, has developed and manufactured a solar-powered flashlight that gives up to seven hours ...

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New York Times (link opens in a new window)

Web Kiosks Lure Indian Farmers as Retailers Target Rural Market

Chander Singh and six other farmers huddle around a computer in the village of Bhaukhedi watching soybean prices rise. While the nearest road is a kilometer away, a portable satellite receiver connects them to the Internet. Singh tripled his income over the past six years by selling beans to ITC Ltd., a 96-year-old tobacco and food company that has built a network of computers to provide information to farmers and convince them to buy the company’s products. Growers who use the se...

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Bloomberg (link opens in a new window)

Dubai’s Legatum invests Rs125 cr in Share Microfin, picks 51% stake

In the second major investment by a foreign investor in an Indian microfinance firm, Legatum Capital, a Dubai-based privately-owned finance firm, committed a $25 million (Rs125 crore) investment in Share Microfin Ltd, a Hyderabad-based microfinance institution which is India?s largest. Recently, Sequoia Capital, one of the largest venture capital firms in the world, led a consortium that invested $11.5 million in SKS Microfinance, India?s second-largest microfinance f...

Source

Live Mint (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Red Hat Launches Emerging Markets Roadmap

Today Red Hat is announcing the upcoming availability of Red Hat Global Desktop. Global Desktop breaks through the price and performance barriers that have prevented many people from realizing the full benefits of state-of-the-art information technology. Red Hat and community members around the world recognized the need for a better solution to serve their local government and small business customers. This required removing the limitations that traditional desktop solutions imposed. In response...

Source

Red Hat Press Release (link opens in a new window)

Microfinance Institutions Act soon in Parliament

The micro financing sector in Sri Lanka is to be streamlined under a regulatory framework to prevent aid wastage, duplication of funds and corruption in the implementation of projects aimed at alleviation of poverty which is one of the prime objectives of the government. No government could solve this national issue on their own, according to microfinance experts, adding that it?s a collective responsibility of all sectors, including private, non-government and the...

Source

The Sunday Times Online, Sri Lanka (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Economics Focus: To Do With the Price of Fish

YOU are a fisherman off the coast of northern Kerala, a region in the south of India. Visiting your usual fishing ground, you bring in an unusually good catch of sardines. That means other fishermen in the area will probably have done well too, so there will be plenty of supply at the local beach market: prices will be low, and you may not even be able to sell your catch. Should you head for the usual market anyway, or should you go down the coast in the hope that fishermen in that area will not...

Source

The Economist (link opens in a new window)

Intel to Invest $1 Billion in Emerging Markets

Called the World Ahead program, the effort essentially expands on other programs Intel has conducted to bring computing to countries like India and China, particularly to people who live in small cities and villages. Though India has become a software powerhouse, it’s estimated that the country a year ago had only 14 PCs for every 1,000 people. Intel will provide equipment under the program as well as teacher training. The program will also let the company lay some of t...

Source

CNET News (link opens in a new window)