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

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

25 entrepreneurs are solving the world’s toughest problems with creativity, ingenuity, and passion.

The entrepreneurial mind abhors a vacuum. Market failures, unmet demand, even the maddening lure of a blank napkin--all beckon as explicit invitations to invent. What defines an entrepreneur (as well as an entrepreneurial organization) is that relentless problem-solving approach, not the specifics of the problem itself. We typically associate such ingenuity with the transformation of problems into lucrative, shareholder-enriching companies. But the entrepreneurs you’ll meet in th...

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Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Electricity Grid Construction Benefits Rural Tibetans

Cuchim Tayai, a villager in Keyu Village in Linzhou County in Lhasa, had used butter lamps like generations of his ancestors. Only after the second-phase of electricity grid construction in Tibet did he come to know electricity for the first time. My daughter now can do her homework without suffering from lamp smoke. We have TV sets, VCDs and electric appliances to make buttered tea, Cuchim Tayai said. Cuchim Tayai is among tens of tho...

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Xinhua News Agency (link opens in a new window)

Project to fund Mexican micro, small and medium-size enterprises

A $2 million grant from the Inter-American Development Bank?s Multilateral Investment Fund will help finance a project to involve Mexican micro, small and medium-size enterprises in ?base of the pyramid? market opportunities to provide better products and services to low-income consumers. The CESPEDES committee of Consejo Coordinador Empresarial (CCE), an association supported by some of the largest corporations in Mexico, will carry out the project, which draws...

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Press Release (link opens in a new window)

85bn Cedis Micro-Credit For Rural Poor

The government has channelled ?85 billion (approx US$9.4 million) through the rural banks for lending as micro-credit to the economically active but poor in the rural areas for them to improve the quality of their lives. The Vice- President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, announce...

Source

graphic ghana (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa