NextBillion - A WDI Publication

SKS Microfinance Cuts Lending Rates

MUMBAI - Indian microlender SKS Microfinance Ltd. Wednesday cut its lending rates to 24.55% on a reducing balance from 26.69% earlier in the southern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh, its spokesperson said. "Earlier in the month, our chairman (Vikram Akula) said that if the government and the central bank wants us to cut rates, we’ll be happy to do so," Atul Takle told Dow Jones Newswires. ...

Source

The Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Lok Capital Makes First Close Of Second Fund At $52 Million

Lok Capital , a venture capital firm focused on the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) market, has made a first close of $52 million for its second fund. CDC Group, the UK government-backed fund of funds, has joined in as the backer with a $10-million investment in Lok Capital II. The fund, which focuses on microfinance besides other BoP opportunities, is targeting $80 million. CDC said, in a statement, tha...

Source

VCCircle (link opens in a new window)

India’s Pharma Industry Set to Quadruple by 2020

The Indian pharmaceuticals market looks poised to grow to $55 billion in 2020, according to a new McKinsey & Company report - "India Pharma 2020: Propelling access and acceptance, realising true potential". This will be a quadrupling of the market from the $12.6 billion the industry made in 2009. The report states that the pharma market has the further potential to reach $70 billion by 2020 if aggressive growth efforts are embraced. ... Affordability will result in half ...

Source

Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

Up to 60% of Water Wells in Developing World Don’t Work

There were more than a few folks critical of standard NGO and conservation group practices at this year’s Poptech conference . For instance, Ned Breslin, the CEO of Water for People, tells reports from the field show that as many as 60% of the wells installed in ...

Source

Treehugger.com (link opens in a new window)

Exit Strategies for Social Entrepreneurs

On Tuesday, my husband’s company, NetSpend , finally had its IPO . After more than ten years of anticipation, the day came and went surprisingly unceremoniously, culminating not with champagne and a feast but with a frightfully suburban dinner of spaghetti and me...

Source

Inc. (link opens in a new window)

The D.I.Y Foreign Aid Revolution

Like so many highly trained young women these days, Elizabeth Scharpf has choices. She could be working in a Manhattan office tower with her Harvard Business School classmates, soaring through the ranks as a banker or business executive and aspiring to become a senator or a C.E.O. someday. After all, there’s no question that women around the world enjoy opportunities that simply didn’t exist a few decades ago. Yet the women exertin...

Source

The New York Times (link opens in a new window)

Indian Rural Network to Get $3.4 Billion Investment

Sam Pitroda, speaking at the Institute of Studies, Singapore gave a brief roadmap of the project. Connecting villages through internet and telephony will bolster India’s infrastructure and provide the much needed bridge between technology and users. According to Sam Pitroda the investment for the project will come from the $1.3 Billion collected from private telecom operators and the accumulated amount of $5 Billion as part of the Universal...

Source

ZD Net (link opens in a new window)

Bringing Clean Light to Poor Nations and Moving Beyond Charity

A child killed in Benin. A dormitory burned to the ground in Tanzania. Countless men and woman across Asia, Africa and elsewhere suffering -- and some dying -- from respiratory ailments. The poorest people on the planet together spent almost $40 billion last year on kerosene a...

Source

The New York Times (link opens in a new window)