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Selling Water, Health Care in the Developing World
In rural India, deep in Punjab - about 90 minutes from the Pakistani border - getting clean drinking water is a challenge. Well water often has high levels of dangerous chemicals. Surface water is contaminated with pesticides and agricultural waste. Getting adequate health care is equally challenging. Government hospitals are often far away, and lines are long. Here, in places like a dusty rural town called Rajiana, a 2-year-old company called Healthpoint Services is trying to fig...
- Region
- South Asia
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How Vineet Rai Has Made Microfinance Advisory Intellecap into a Rs 30 Crore Venture
Age at starting business: 30 years Company name: Intellecap Headquarters: Hyderabad Seed capital: Rs 1 lakh Source of money: Parents-in-law, personal savings Turnover after first year: Rs 12 lakh Turnover in 2010-11: Rs 30 crore In a country where advice is abundant and free, making a career out of it may seem like a risky proposition. Fortunately for me, the gamble paid of...
- Region
- South Asia
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The 4 Ways Big Corporations Flirt with Socially Responsible Business
The last decade has given rise to many experiments by companies to incubate socially responsible business models. Large financial institutions have become hosts to microfinance divisions (Citi, Morgan Stanley). Energy companies have experimented with base-of-the-pyramid business models for emerging markets, aligning social utility (access to energy) with business strategy (long term growth). And social enterprises like The Body Shop and Ben & Jerry’s have been acquired by major multin...
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A Decade of Microfinance and Improved Child Well-being in Kosovo
Ten years after microfinance institution (MFI) KosInvest began work in Kosovo, its clients, staff and partners are celebrating improved child well-being thanks to loans for poor rural families and the peacebuilding work of World Vision in Kosovo. Since its inception, KosInvest has impacted the lives of 40,000 children through 12,000 loans totaling US$24 million and 16,000 jobs, which have been created or sustained through microfinance. KosInvest was established in 20...
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Uruguayan Farmers Tackles Climate Change
The World Bank approved a US$49 million loan to support Uruguayan farmers tackle climate change. In their efforts, farmers are adopting environmentally sustainable practices to improve the resilience of their production systems in response to the effects of climate variability. The program is called the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and Climate Change. This will benefit 16,000 Uruguayan farmers through co-financing of land projects to improve their production systems, the ...
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Latin America
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Indonesia?s Green Prosperity
On November 19, 2011, in Bali, Indonesia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a new partnership agreement with the Government of Indonesia providing more than $600 million of U.S. aid through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). More than half of these investments are dedicated to "green prosperity"-the sound idea that sustainable natural resource management and clean energy technologies accelerate economic growth and poverty alleviation. What does this mean in practical te...
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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More Optimism Here Than in Developed World
New Delhi: David Calhoun, chief executive officer of leading global information and measurement company Nielsen Holdings NV, believes overseas clients could learn from the innovations of Indian marketers for bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers. The former vice-chairman of General Electric Co. (GE), who surprised many when he moved to Nielsen in 2006, was in India to attend a consumer summit organized by the research firm. Nielsen, owned by a group of private equity firms, including ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Microfinance Works – For the Rich
VALLADOLID, Spain, Nov 18 (IPS) - Jesús Guerra, a volunteer at this week’s Fifth Global Microcredit Summit in this Spanish town, was nonplussed by the expensive gold watch sported by a banker from a developing country. "When I volunteered to help at the Summit I thought this was different," Guerra told IPS. "I believed that everybody who worked in microfinance wanted to end social injustices, but here I am listening to a lot of people saying that the goal i...
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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