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

HLL, ITC draw up two-pronged strategies to woo customers

India?s two major FMCG players in rural markets are now extending their reach to woo new consumers. Project Shakti will be operational across all states in India. The company also plans to cover 500,000 villages with 100,000 Shakti Ammas (women entrepreneurs) in the next two years. Competitor ITC Ltd is also planning to set up 50 Choupal Sagars (rural super stores) by the end of this fiscal year. India?s largest FMCG company Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL)is gearing up to launch its rural...

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The Financial Express (link opens in a new window)

US jeans major, Arvind Mills in JV

The $7-billion VF Corporation of US is setting up a joint venture with Arvind Mills to design, market and distribute VF’s branded lifestyle apparel in India. Many will recognize Arvind as the company behind Ruf-n-Tuf jeans, a BOP innovation documented by C.K. Prahalad and Stuart Hart in their article, Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid in 2002.?

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Times of India (link opens in a new window)

China to bring clean, safe water to all rural residents by 2015

According to Wang, the central government will increase investment in rural water supply projects and encourage more private investment in rural infrastructure construction. One hundred and sixty million people in China’s rural areas will get clean and safe drinking water in the next five years and by 2015 all Chinese rural residents will be provided with safe potable water, Minister of Water Resources Wang Shucheng told Xinhua on Monday. Wang said currently 312 million Chinese ...

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Xinhua News (link opens in a new window)

Excerpt: The seminal work by CK Prahalad, arguing the crucial role of multi-national corporations in alleviating poverty by treating the poor as consumers, has been one of the most influential tracts in recent years. Now, a vigorous attack has been mounted on its underlying assumptions and conclusions. Aneel Karnani, Associate Professor of Strategy at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, has produced a critical analysis that not o...

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Ethical Corporation (link opens in a new window)

CSR, MDGs and the bottom of the pyramid

To be blunt, governments and their international arms including the agencies grouped under the umbrella of the United Nations, have failed in their attempts to rid the planet of underdevelopment and poverty. Excerpt: At the core of many of the MDGs is the fact that many problems we face are linked to poverty and a lack of access to resources, including education and healthcare. Poverty breeds poverty when people do not have rights to these sorts of resources and lack the empowerment to move o...

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CSR Asia Weekly (link opens in a new window)

Fighting poverty $1 at a time

Since its beginning, the micro-finance model of providing small loans to help expand or start a self-sustaining enterprise has helped more than 8.2 million of the world’s poorest people -- in at least 115 countries -- to stand on their feet. Excerpt: It all started with $50. In 1988, that’s what it took Noni Bala Ghosh to revive her family’s business of making sweets to sell in Kholshi, her tiny village in Bangladesh. Family members had given up the business because they c...

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CNN (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Developing new market opportunities for low-income communities

A four-year program, run by the Mexican BCSD, will improve market opportunities for local entrepreneurs, creating new business networks involving MSMEs and lifting people out of the informal economy. Funding for the project comes from the Inter-American Development Bank through their Building Opportunity for the Majority initiative. By leveraging the advantages of smaller firms ? their proximity to clients, their outreach and knowledge of local needs and culture ? the pr...

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World Business Council for Sustainable Development (link opens in a new window)

Gates Foundation Awards $1.5 Million to Grameen Foundation

Grameen Foundation, a leading global microfinance organization, today announced it has received a $1.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support its work worldwide. The three-year grant will support Grameen Foundation’s strategic plan to reach five million additional new families, ensure that 50 percent of them permanently escape poverty within five years of becoming a microfinance client, and champion innovations that transform the microfinance industry. The unrest...

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Grameen Foundation (link opens in a new window)