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

Quanta to build the $100 laptop

Taiwan’s Quanta, the biggest manufacturer of notebooks in the world, has signed on to the $100 laptop project. The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization, which hopes to bring a $100 laptop championed by MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte, has selected Quanta to serve as its original design manufacturer, or ODM. ODMs typically manufacture products, but also participate substantially in the final design. Although not many U.S. consumers know the name, many own Quant...

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CNET News.com, Michael Kanellos (link opens in a new window)

Taxation Policies Widening the Digital Divide

Governments must recognise that they have an important role in creating the right environment for telecommunications to grow. This study is the first of its kind covering emerging markets and focusing on developing public and private partnerships between the mobile industry and governments to eradicate the digital divide. East Africa has the highest tax burden on the mobile telephone industry in Africa. Uganda, with about 1.3 million mobile handsets, is r...

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The East African (Nairobi), Kezio David Musoke (link opens in a new window)

A Fine Mesh

Michael Freedman Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen’s textiles make a good profit by doing good. But suppose the funding dries up? For the moment, at least, Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen’s company is in the limelight, on the sixth floor of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. Frandsen’s textiles are on display alongside creations from avant-garde sculptors and industrial designers. An odd forum to show off mosquito nets, the leading product of Vestergaard Frandsen S.A. of Laus...

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Forbes Magazine (link opens in a new window)

The Best in Class

Jeremy Caplan Business-school rankings often address how much graduates earn. But two nonprofits, the World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute, assess M.B.A. programs by their commitment to social responsibility instead. Here are some of the progressive schools that ranked highest this year. See beyondgreypinstripes.org for the full list. ?STANFORD UNIVERSITY The survey’s top-rated school offers 30 elective courses on topics like environmental sustainability and...

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Time Bonus Section January 2006: Inside Business (link opens in a new window)

by Rahul Kumar

New Delhi: Corporates can join hands with the development sector and fill up the void that governments have not fulfilled in meeting the developmental needs of the people. Professionals from the corporate and the development sector at a conference - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Asia - agreed that corporations in today?s globalised world could respond to societal needs even while making profits. The Business and Community Foundation (BCF) and OneWorld South Asia had organiz...

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OneWorld South Asia (link opens in a new window)

BLOOMINGTON -- From the opulent, over-stuffed Christmas aisles of American big box stores to the tiny Peruvian town of Chucuito high in the frigid Andean mountain plateau is about as far as you can go on this spinning planet. In poverty-stricken Chucuito, families have been knitting since before Incan times. Now, women knit together, watching their children as they work. They produce charming and intricate finger puppets, which they sell to a fair trade group. The money th...

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Pantagraph.com (link opens in a new window)

by Dr. B. G. Mukhopadhyay

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an old hat, which has lost its shape as different authors have used it differently in different context. Even though, I do not fully agree with Milton Friedman?s viewpoint on monetary economics, but his views on corporate social responsibility is quite appealing to me and somewhat seductive. He is of the view that the purpose of the business is to make profit and there is no ambiguity in it. One should do one?s business following the rules of the...

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One World South Asia (link opens in a new window)

Indigenous Trees Feed Rural Families

Nicola Jenvey Durban Hundreds of rural families, many of whom are child-headed households, are securing sound incomes by growing indigenous trees from the seeds found in local forests and using the saplings as currency. The project, which aims to help people out of poverty, got a boost yesterday when 100 new bicycles, food, clothing and building materials became the anchor products for a range of stores that will barter trees for...

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All Africa (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa