NextBillion - A WDI Publication

India’s Rural Inventors Drive Change

MUMBAI - Mansukh Prajapati invented a first-of-a-kind refrigerator that is made out of terracotta, works without electricity, costs US$53 and is selling in the thousands. It’s a sample of an innovation wave from rural and small-town India enriching the world with common-sense products. Anil Gupta, a professor at India’s premier business school, the Indian Ins...

Source

Asia Times Online (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Multinationals: Self-Interest Drives New Attitudes to Agriculture

Global agribusiness companies are waking up to smallholder farmers. Long used to buying their produce through intermediaries, companies are now meeting farmers in the fields. Cadbury is committed to making its leading Dairy Milk brand Fairtrade by supporting small cocoa farmers in Ghana. Unilever &nbs...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Exploring a Market-Based Approach to Malnutrition

Soon, low-income families in Kenya will be able to add to their diet a pre-cooked porridge product that is rich in proteins and vitamins and supplies the nine essential amino acids required by the human body. The porridge will not be delivered under the auspices of an aid agency or a governme...

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Chennai Builder to Promote Affordable Apartments

CHENNAI: Owning a dream home for many a poor Chennaiite could soon become a reality with a leading builder, Khivraj Estates, all set to promote a low-cost residential project at Thiruvottriyur, 10 km from the city centre, at Rs 4 lakh per 269-sq ft studio apartment. The project will come up in an area where a 650-sq ft apartment costs at least Rs 15 lakh at present. Khivraj MD Ajit Chordia sa...

Source

Times of India (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Tackling the Crisis of Urban Poverty in Kenya

NAIROBI, 19 January 2010 (IRIN) - Fridah Awour Agolla has sold vegetables in Nairobi’s Mathare slum for 20 years. In better times, her stock sold out every day. But lately market forces have begun to bite even harder for the millions in Kenya who live in such squalid, neglected settlements. "My customers are buying less and less; now I find that goods like vegetables do not sell out, they go into the next day. People’s ability to buy these goods has really dropped," A...

Source

IRIN (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Mobile: Silver Bullet to Target the Non-Banked

After 62 years of Independence, the informal economy dominates 80% of India and half the below-poverty-line households still have no access to any kind of financial services. This will continue, unless radical steps are taken. A starting point is the bottom-of-the-pyramid people’s need for a basic financial service, viz. mobile money transfer (MMT). While almost all wage earners carry mobiles, not all wage earners will have a bank account. The mobile is the proverbial silver bullet....

Source

Financial Express (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

FT: Mobile Phones Transform Life of India?s Poor

Before he got a mobile phone seven years ago, Vijay Navle, a small Mumbai fish trader, spent much of his time and scant income travelling on buses and trains. Every day, he would make the five-hour round trip to visit fishermen living on the Arabian Sea on the north of the city to see if they had caught any of the prawns and large fish that he sells to exporters at south Mumbai’s Sassoon Dock. "I can immediately inform my customers that there’s a big catch coming in fresh ...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

One Man’s Crusade to Bring Riches to Rural Areas: Aavishkaar Social Venture Capital Fund

Aavishkaar CEO Vineet Rai has been raising the ’social entrepreneurship’ bar that will help create excellent, livelihood-generating rural enterprises, says Rajni Bakshi. Vineet Rai enjoys putting a twist in the buzz about social entrepreneurship. Since his work is one of the reasons for the excitement about such businesses, Rai is now a frequent speaker at public events. "I can’t wait for the ’social’ to be dropped" is usually his opening line. Rai’s tightr...

Source

Rediff (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Uncategorized

Region

South Asia