NextBillion - A WDI Publication

New Rules in India Sink SKS Shares

MUMBAI-Shares of SKS Microfinance Ltd., one of the world’s largest microloan companies in terms of borrowers, tumbled on Friday after the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh created new restrictions on the microfinance industry in reaction to a recent string of suicides by borrowers. SKS and many of India’s biggest microlenders are based in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh. The state is planning to adopt new rules to govern ...

Source

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

Region

South Asia

Are Social Entrepreneurs Crazy?

Social entrepreneurs have never been in greater demand, as the world grinds on with tired solutions to seemingly intractable problems such as hunger, poverty, war, inequality and disease. And in theory, social entrepreneurs bring new ideas that challenge the prevailing wisdom that these problems are intractable at all. They are front and center in developing countries, with new vaccines to combat disease, water pumps to irrigate crops and micro...

Source

The Washington Post (link opens in a new window)

?Impact Investing? Teeters on Edge of Explosive Growth

Conferences can be a good indicator of the health of an industry, and by that measure the emerging sector of "social entrepreneurship" appears to be booming. The third annual SOCAP conference last week in San Francisco drew more than 1,300 people paying as much as $1,395 a ticket, and you could feel the energy among the amalgam of philanthropists, foundations, investors and idealistic entrepreneurs. The idea that it’s possible to marry hard-nosed capitalism and bleeding-heart causes...

Source

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

IGNIA Fund Invests MX$38.1 million in Barafon, a BoP Public Telecommunications Provider

MONTERREY, Mexico , Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- IGNIA Fund I, LP, the first impact investing fund in Latin America , announced today that it has invested MX$38.1 million ( US$3.1 million ) in Servicios Caseteros S.A.P.I. de C.V. ("Barafon"), a provider of public telephony and related services to low income populations in Mexico through a networ...

Region

Latin America

mWomen Launches BoP Mobile Application Challenge

The GSMA’s mWomen Program today launched its ‘Base of the Pyramid (BOP) App Challenge’ which aims to encourage the development of original apps targeted at the specific needs of women in developing countries living on under US$2 a day. Sponsored by Vodafone, the app challenge is focused on both low-end devices (or feature phones) as well as smartphones. Developers have until December 7 to submit their apps, with the winners announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress n...

FINO and NCR Launch Remittance Kiosks in India

Financial Inclusion Network & Operations (FINO), one of India’s leading Financial Inclusion service provider and NCR Corporation, a global technology company today announced the launch of an added functionality of remittance service to the FINO NCR EasyPoint 70 – &lsqu...

Region

South Asia

Ugandan wins Base of Pyramid Mobile Communications Award

Mr Alex Nyika, a Ugandan software developer based in Kenya, on Monday scooped the top prize at one of Europe’s most prestigious mobile communication innovation awards. Mr Nyika, the chief executive Xrystalgenius , a Nairobi-based mobile startup, won the Base of the Pyramid award at the 2010 Mobile Monday Peer Awards that took place in Helsinki, Finland. Five finalists including United States-based Super Technologies, which emerged runner up in the category competed...

Eko India Financial Services Reaches Out to Unbanked Indians

W hen will everyone in India have a bank account? It is difficult to answer that, but Eko India Financial Services has taken up this challenge to reach out banking services to 40 per cent of the un-banked population in India. Eko helps anyone who owns a cellphone to do banking transactions in just a few seconds. Launched by Abhishek Sinha, the company helps the poor in wealth creation by saving as little as Rs 10. ...