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

Uganda Telecom targets rural areas for growth

The heat in the telecommunication sector is high with players targeting virgin areas with new products. Bamuturaki Musinguzi asked Uganda Telecom Marketing Manager, Mr Hans M.F. Paulsen on the latest developments in the industry. How much have you invested since privatisation in 2000? Upon privatisation of Uganda telecom, we had to transform the company from a single provider into a competitive telecommunications provider with a wide range of services. To achie...

Source

The Monitor

GTZ And Chiquita Form New Public-Private Partnership In Costa Rica

The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and Chiquita Brands International are launching a new public-private partnership (PPP) initiative ? the Nogal Nature and Community Project ? in Costa Rica. The aim of this initiative is to preserve biodiversity, promote nature conservation awareness among the local population and create new sources of income for the people. On a Chiquita farm on the banks of the R?o Sucio in nort...

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CSRwire

ITC plans 30 rural malls; 2nd phase of e-choupal in 2006, by Mohan Padmanabhan

Having successfully established the country’s first private sector rural mall, ITC Ltd plans to open 30 more such malls in 2005-06, in synergy with its fast growing e-choupal network. ITC’s rural mall - Choupal Sagar - is at Sehore in Madhya Pradesh. The construction of nine malls is nearing completion (three each in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh). They may be opened within the next few months. The Sehore mall, housed in 5 acres of land,...

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The Hindu Business Line

IFC Lends Support to Microloans in Russia, by Anna Smolchenko

The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private lending unit, signed its first deal to support microloans in Russia on Friday. The $1 million loan to the Russian Women’s Microfinance Network is intended to support hundreds of microloans -- on average $1,500 each -- to entrepreneurs without the collateral to qualify for traditional bank loans. For us this is a very interesting project targeting segments of the population that are not being ser...

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The Moscow Times

Enterprising Women Reach Beyond Borders, by Ra?l Pierri

The Calma?ana cooperative, now made up of 25 women, pioneered organic farming in Uruguay. Their products, marketed under the brand name CampoClaro, are sold in local supermarkets and exported to Spain and Italy. The women now hope to expand their horizons even further thanks to an international project know as WINNER (Women into the New Network for Entrepreneurial Reinforcement). WINNER, created by Devnet (an international network that provides business information and ma...

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IPS

Ericsson wins rural India GSM contract

Ericsson has signed a US$250 million managed capacity expansion contract with Indian operator Bharti to provide managed services and expand its GSM/GPRS network into rural India. Ericsson’s technology and managed services solutions will enable Bharti to expand into around 3000 towns and villages in 15 regions. The rollout of the first phase of this ongoing coverage expansion into rural India will start in July 2005. Ericsson also provides its Expander solution for rural coverage ...

Source

celluar-news

Medicinal plant from Asia fights malaria, earns cash, by Tom Maliti

Small farmer Atanasia Vincent Moshia stands proudly next to the knee-high plants she’s growing to fight two African ills: malaria and poverty. In March, Moshia, who is also an agricultural extension officer with the Tanzanian government, switched from planting the corn and beans she’s been growing for years to artemisia annua, from which artemisinin is extracted to make a drug or a combination of drugs used to treat malaria. She expects it to be a more lucrative crop.

Source

AP Worldstream

Consortium plans computer kiosks for rural India, by Eric Auchard

Supporters of the project say they hope the Karnataka pilot will become a blueprint for setting up similar rural business centers in each village kiosk. Comat is working to digitize rural land records in stats across India. India has an estimated 147,000 rural villages. We see this as the ’rural services’ blueprint for populations in developing nations everywhere, Kish said. The consortium is one of several Indian projects seeking to tackle ...

Source

Reuters UK

Region

South Asia