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ICICI Bank betting big on SME business
The future of the SME business is very promising and ICICI Bank is ideally positioned to exploit the opportunity, Vijay Chandok, Senior General Manager (Small Enterprises Group), ICICI Bank, said here today. Many SMEs are in the investment mode to create capacities, quality processes and upgradation and modernisation of their facilities, he said, adding this constituted a huge opportunity in the segment for the country’s second largest commercial bank. &...
- Region
- South Asia
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Microfinance Can Become Global Model
The Nobel Committee’s well-deserved recognition of Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank with this year’s prestigious Peace Prize marks a significant milestone in society’s quest for peace. Their decision clearly trumpets: Poverty is a threat to peace. If poverty were a disease, then micro-credit would be the best vaccine. Access to capital in a capitalistic global economy is the best route to ensure access to other rights and needs. We have seen it work firsthand. Yunus...
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Telecoms Hungry for Next Billion Callers
One of the big topics discussed at this week’s ITU Telecom World 2006 forum in Hong Kong has been how to narrow the digital divide by connecting people in poorer countries to the Internet. The estimated 1 billion Internet users and 2 billion-plus mobile phone subscribers worldwide are mostly clustered in wealthier markets. Now telecom and IT executives are on a quest for the next billion, and that growth is expected to come primarily from developing markets. Why focus ...
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A Grassroots Approach to Emerging-Market Consumers
When companies figure out how to serve low-income consumers in developing countries profitably, everyone wins: the disadvantaged gain access to products and services that the private sector is best positioned to deliver, while companies tap into vast new markets. On top of that, when core sectors of the economy?such as banking, electricity, telecommunications, and water?thrive, they transform consumers into producers and promote economic development. Unfortunately, this happy dynamic ...
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The five-minute foldaway house
When a fire in an informal settlement at KwaMbonambi in KwaZulu-Natal left scores of shack dwellers homeless, entrepreneur Rajan Harinarain came up with a solution, in the form of a foldaway house - complete with door, two windows and electrical fittings - that can be erected in five minutes. This week, Harinarain launched the patented dwelling developed from his concept together with the Zululand Chamber of Business Foundation, which will market the structures and provide the facilit...
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Taking Tiny Loans to the Next Level
An idea, not a person, was the most powerful force in philanthropy in 2006. President Bill Clinton devoted a big chunk of his annual Clinton Global Initiative to exploring it. The mighty Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation endorsed it. The choice of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner was a tribute to it. It was truly the year of microfinance. ?An idea, not a person, was the most powerful force in philanthropy in 2006. President Bill Clinton devoted a big chunk of his annual Clinton Global Initiat...
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The “Next Big Thing” for Global Business
Businesses are not philanthropies. So doing business at the so-called bottom of the pyramid (BOP) requires new strategies and tactics that are generally not familiar to traditional businessmen. There is a real market at the BOP, and that market could evolve more quickly with the help of the business community. But to capture the interest of multinational corporations, they must see clearly how they can profit from this opportunity. The first step is being convinced that th...
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Aureos plans to raise new emerging markets funds and to open ten more offices
Emerging markets private equity fund manager Aureos Capital has announced that it plans to raise new funds for Central Asia, Latin America and Africa. With the new funds Aureos expects to double its funds under management by 2008/2009. To date Aureos has raised and/or managed nearly $600m. The firm also plans to open ten new offices. Two new funds are scheduled for launch in 2007: an Aureos Central Asia Fund and a new, second-generation pan-regional Aureos Latin American Fund. A...
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