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

Banking by Inclusion: Old Wine in New Bottle

from http://www.hindu.com/biz/2005/11/21/stories/2005112100201500.htm The government is set to carry forward some important proposals enunciated recently by the Reserve Bank of India in its credit policy statements to make Indian banking more inclusive. What the RBI has been proposing reflects a fe...

Source

The Hindu

Fonkoze Helps Transform Microfinance to Reach the Poorest of the Poor in Haiti

After convening a summit on how to modify microfinance to serve the extreme poor, Fonkoze adapts a model pioneered by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. SocialFunds.com -- Marie and Roland may seem like perfect candidates for microfinance, which extends small loans and technical support to the poor to help lift themselves from poverty. Marie sold items at market in Thomonde, Haiti, and her husband Roland worked as a sharecropper planting millet and corn--until they were diag...

Source

Socialfunds.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Uct Scientists Invent Disposable Solar Panel

Tamar Kahn Johannesburg SCIENTISTS at the University of Cape Town are exploiting the nano-scale properties of silicon to develop a super-thin disposable solar panel poster which they hope could offer rural dwellers a cheap, alternative source of power. Many people living in remote areas are not linked to the national electricity grid, and use batteries or run their own generators to supply their power needs. The scientists have developed technology for pri...

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Business Day (Johannesburg) (link opens in a new window)

More Internet, Less Poverty?

Building a bridge across the digital divide might not be the smooth path to poverty reduction that many people believe. As many as 17,000 people from around the world are attending this United Nations conference targeted at closing the now famous divide, the gap in access to the Internet and other information age tools (and skills) between rich and poor countries, and even within nations. But will providing Internet access or mobile phones to more people help end the poverty that dis...

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Inter Press Service (link opens in a new window)

Immigrant workers who send money home to their families are a major source of critical funding for p

Rich and poor countries need to make it cheaper for immigrant workers to send money back to their families to ?sharpen? the impact of remittances on poverty reduction, the World Bank said on Wednesday. International remittance flows to developing countries are expected to rise to $167bn (?143bn, ?97bn) this year, twice the amount of official aid paid by governments, the bank said in its Global Development Prospects report. Unreported flows mean that remittances are probabl...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Understanding fragmented consumer tastes in China

Matt Doyle, Procter & Gamble’s director of healthcare products research, has an unusual invitation for his guests during a visit to the company’s Cincinnati headquarters: C’mere, you want to go to Alaska? The group has just been standing in a store room in which P&G’s products neatly line the shelves. The temperature is 40?C and the humidity 75 per cent, replicating the heat of a Chinese summer. In the second room, the temperature has dropped to -5?...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

ICICI bank, Grameen of USA set up JV for micro-finance

MUMBAI, NOV 15: With a view to developing a commercial market for micro finance receivables, the country’s largest private sector bank, ICICI bank has tied up with Grameen Foundation USA to set up Grameen Capital India (GCI). GCI will work with the micro finance institutions (MFIs) to access primary and secondary debt markets as also private placement of MFI portfolios with banks, said KV Kamath, managing director & ceo, ICICI Bank. GCI will also provide credit enhancements t...

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financial express (link opens in a new window)

Delay, High Cost of Business Registration, Counter Productive – World Bank/IMF

Saviour Davidson Fia According to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, African nations, despite their high youth unemployment rates, continue to thwart small and medium businesses with legal burdens and piecemeal reforms. Data on recent reforms to the regulatory environment for business contained in ’Doing Business 2006,’ a publication by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), poi...

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Ghanaian Chronicle (link opens in a new window)