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Business Schools With a Social Appeal
LONDON - Business schools can be cutthroat places. After struggling to gain admission to the top schools, students compete for grades and the best work placements. Meanwhile, the schools themselves jostle for position in the various global rankings, competing in order to attract the most able students. But in the never-ending battle for dominance, one London business school has decided to appeal not to potential students’ wallets, but to their consciences. Starting in September, the...
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Designing the Future of Housing for India’s Poorest
The words "affordable housing" don’t properly explain the work of Micro Home Solutions . The company, based in Delhi, India, does occupy that housing space, but its more of an interdisciplinary design services company for low-income urban dwellers, drawing upon the insights of sociologists, urban planners, architects, policy-makers, and engineers to help create a sustainable living ecosystem for some of the world’s poorest residents...
- Tags
- housing
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Indian Scavengers Doing What Officials Can’t
In cities and in the countryside, in forests and on beaches, along roads and riverbeds, India is choking on garbage. India generates more than 100 million tons of municipal waste a year. On a per capita basis, this is far lower than most developed countries, but the amount of garbage generated is growing fast. More problematically, very little of India’s waste is properly treated. The ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Tracing families? escape from poverty
For all the detailed tools developed to study finance in past decades, relatively few scholars have brought those methods to bear on a pressing social question: How do poor people manage their finances? Now, a long-term study of the poor in small villages in Thailand is shedding light on the issue. Having a sound financial strategy, including a commitment to saving money, has a large impact on lifting families out of poverty, the research reveals. Moreover, advances in wealth...
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India proposes regulating microfinanciers
MUMBAI (AFP) - An Indian central bank panel has put forward proposals for nationwide regulation of the microfinance sector after the industry was buffeted by accusations of lending abuses. The panel urged that interest rates on microloans be capped at 24 percent a year and that loans to the poor total no more than 25,000 ...
- Region
- South Asia
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After Sudan’s Referendum: A Former “Lost Boy” Turns Entrepreneur
On January 9th, Southern Sudanese voted on whether to become a separate, independent nation. While the results of that vote are still up in the air (though early indications reveal a majority voted for secession from the North ), one fearless entrepreneur, Nico Ajak Bior, already has his sights se...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Combating Poverty With Clean Energy
ABU DHABI (IDN) - Fighting poverty by promoting sustainable development and mitigating climate change is one of the priorities of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for 2011. With this is view, he is calling for a global revolution that would benefit some 1.6 billion people in developing countries still lacking access to electricity. Addressing the Fourth World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on January 17, Ban said: "Our challenge is transformation. We need ...
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- climate health
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Diamond Cab Picks Up Hong Kong’s Fledgling Social Entrepreneurship Scene
Social entrepreneurship is a relatively new phenomenon in Hong Kong--and one venture philanthropy startup, Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVhk) , has been at the forefront of the movement, with several investees under its portfolio focused on the elderly and disabled. The group’s newest project, Diamond Cab , officially launches next week. "Diamond Cab is the first branded, high-quality taxi servic...
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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