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

Rural India Getting Richer? You Bet!

The Rediff Interview/ R V Rajan, managing director, Anugraha Madison Anugraha Madison has widely been credited with introducing the concept of rural marketing in India. The company was one of the first marketing firms to realise the potential of rural India and decided to focus on rural marketing. R V Rajan, chief managing director, Anugraha Madison, shares his views with Shobha Warrier on how rural India has changed over the la...

The commercial challenge of solving the ills of the world, by Simon London

What better time to read Capitalism at the Crossroads than in the wake of General Electric’s announcement that it would invest big bucks in eco-friendly technology? The grandfather of industrial conglomerates believes it can make good profits from products that promote fuel efficiency and environmental protection. Stuart Hart , professor of sustainable global enterprise at Cornell’s Johnson School of Mana...

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Financial Times

Beyond kleptocracy and Kalashnikovs, by Andrew Rugasira

Many Africans are condemned from birth to a future of poverty, disease and premature death. In addition to this, the prevailing perception of Africans and their capabilities never transcends the confines of their so-called limitations. You are poor because you are poor. While poverty is an undeniable part of the African reality, it is only part of it. There is another side to the continent. For this we must go beyond the gloom and doom and see Africa as a land of opportunity and hope....

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Guardian Unlimited

Businesses sprout out of Africa, by Pia Sarkar

Venture capital seeds startups, changes lives As Silicon Valley venture capitalist Bob King sees it, $100 to build a new business and potentially change the lives of 30 people in East Africa is a solid investment. For that reason, King has been contributing to the Village Enterprise Fund , a nonprofit organization based in San Carlos that provides one-time startup grants of $100 to small-business owners in Kenya,...

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San Francisco Chronicle

Arthur D Little launches innovative publication

In 1999 Arthur D Little partnered with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to look at how companies were integrating sustainable development into how they approached innovation. Five years on they set out to see what had changed and have now produced the Innovation High Ground Report . For this latest report Arthur D. Little collaborated with Hedstrom Associates and surveyed 40 tech...

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Business in the Community

First rural-based ICT business centre in Ghana opened

Ghana’s first rural-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) business centre, commenced operations at Nkurankan, a market town near Koforidua in the Yilo Krobo District on Tuesday. Sogakope in the Volta Region and Sege in the Greater-Accra Region were also expected to benefit from a similar facility, in the course of the year. Ghana Telecom (GT), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and two other partners, under a joint pilot project initiated th...

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GNA

Innovative Base Of The Pyramid (BOP) Approach Highlighted In Newly Released Report

SC Johnson profiles stories of innovation and leadership around the world What do a Kenyan farmer earning less than $1 a day and a multinational corporation have in common? Thanks to a novel program initiated by SC Johnson , many Kenyan farmers who grow pyrethrum may look forward to increased crop yields, additional household income and improved quality of life. In exchange, the company helps develop a sus...

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CSRwire

Designing for Change in the Developing World, by Francis Raven

?Engineering doesn?t normally address challenges in the developing world, says Denise Kulawik, director of program development for Design that Matters (DtM), a nonprofit in Cambridge, MA. For a product to be successful in the developing world it has to be inexpensive, robust, and withstand harsh physical conditions. In addition, in rural communities, there are issues with the power system.? Design that Matter...

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Digital Divide Network