-
In Praise of Dorm Room Entrepreneurs
They come from the United States, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Finland, Germany, Sri Lanka and the list goes on. They run businesses ranging from a social network application that is claiming 20,000 new users a day to a company that turns the scraps from textile processing into rugs sold around the world, to a company that arranges travel and accommodations for college football fans headed to away games. And they’re all undergraduates who ...
-
Gates Foundation Pledges $500 Million to Help the Poor Save Money
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $500 million Tuesday to help create new banking systems that will reach into the world’s most impoverished corners and allow families earning $2 a day or less to begin saving money. After years of promoting microcredit borrowing to help impoverished farmers and bottom-of-the-rung entrepreneurs expand their business opportunities, foundation leaders said it was increasingly apparent that saving, not just credit, is crucial to helpi...
-
Unilever Says Sustainability Key to New Business Model
Consumer products giant Unilever has unveiled a "new business model" putting sustainability at the heart of its global operations. It pledged to halve the environmental impact of its products while doubling sales over the next 10 years. Chief executive Paul Polman said the new model was "the only way to do business long term". The company said it would produce an annual report on its progress towards achieving these goals. Uni...
- Categories
- Education
-
Aajeevika Founders Win Schwab Award
New Delhi: Rajiv Khandelwal and Krishnavtar Sharma, founders of the Aajeevika Bureau, a non-profit that works with the migrant workers of south Rajasthan, have won the Social Entrepreneur Award, 2010. The annual award is given by Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in partnership with Jubilant Bhartia Foundation. The bureau is headquartered in Udaipur and has offices in Ahmedabad, Jaipur and seven blocks of south Rajast...
- Region
- South Asia
-
Brazil bank oversight under fire
Brazil’s central bank is being urged to strengthen its oversight of the banking sector after it alleged that Banco Panamericano, a medium-sized bank by assets, had concealed losses of about R$1bn (US$580m), apparently resulting from high rates of customer default at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Shares in Panamericano fell by 30 per cent on Wednesday after the bank’s difficulties became public and its management was replaced. But they rallied by 8 p...
- Region
- Latin America
-
Collaborative Consumption is a Better Path for Developing Countries
The United States was founded on the idea of idea of individual liberty, individual ownership, and individual needs. Unfortunately, this is a costly way for a country to develop, especially if every citizen aspires to express his freedom and individuality by owning a car or a house or a hammer. Nearly 250 years into the evolution of our ethos of individuality, some Americans are starting to recognize that the primacy of in...
-
Analysis: Drug industry doses up on emerging markets
(Reuters) - Big Pharma’s drive into emerging markets could make drugmakers look a lot more like consumer goods companies in future. That may be no bad thing. Emerging markets are the new battleground for pharmaceutical companies as sales stall in Western markets, but the focus on volume makes them a very different business proposition to premium-priced markets in the United States and Europe. Kris Jenner, who ru...
-
Frog and UNICEF partner to tackle infant health
Industrial design firm Frog Design, perhaps best known for the creation of the case for the Apple IIc, is working in partnership with children’s charity UNICEF as the lead design partner on Project Mwana, a major mhealth initiative to improve maternal and infant health and welfare in Malawi and rural Zambia. The project will start off by making use of mobile technologies in innovative ways to significantly increase mothers’ visits to clinics for ant...
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.