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Uganda: VoIP Smile Communications Launches Today
Kampala - The seventh mobile operator in Uganda, Smiles Communication, starts operations today, using the 02 code. Irene Charnley, Smiles’ chief executive officer, yesterday said the firm targets the un-served, bottom of the pyramid consumers in Africa and the Middle East. "For the first time, individuals are offered free electronic identities and voice message boxes without needing to own a phone," said Charnley.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Henry Ford of Heart Surgery
BANGALORE -- Hair tucked into a surgical cap, eyes hidden behind thick-framed magnifying glasses, Devi Shetty leans over the sawed open chest of an 11-year-old boy, using bright blue thread to sew an artificial aorta onto his stopped heart. As Dr. Shetty pulls the thread tight with scissors, an assistant reads aloud a proposed agreement for him to build a new hospital in the Cayman Islands that would primarily serve Americans in search of lower-cost medical care. The agreement is inked ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Back to Villages with “Reverse Innovation”
Kolkata: If you are in Gurdaspur, make sure you take a stroll down the Western Union Chowk. For nowhere else in the world would you find a street named after the world’s largest cross-border remittances company. This only proves how great is the brand recall for Western Union in this smalltown in Punjab. This also shows how big corporates have moved beyond the archetypal rural marketing tools like small unit sachets, mom-and-pop stores or partnership...
- Region
- South Asia
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India: IFC Turns Focus on Funding to Poorer States
Mumbai: The private sector lending arm of the World Bank group is sharpening its focus on the bottom of the pyramid. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will increase lending to enterprises in seven north Indian states that lag the rest of the country in average incomes and has set up a separate unit that works in these poorer states, the lender’s top manager said on Monday. “We have shifted focus to areas where we can contribute,” said Lars Thunell, executive ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Businessweek: A Big Idea for Little Farms
In the countryside of Shanxi Province in north-central China, farmer Xie Xin has struggled for years with water shortages. The 47-year-old, who grows tomatoes and cucumbers, had to pay dearly to use the local well, since the region receives an average of only 16.5 inches of rainfall annually. But this year, Xie started participating in an experiment in which farmers use new irrigation equipment to conserve water. The equipment, similar to a garden hose with small holes every foot or so, is ex...
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Philips Digs At Bottom of the Pyramid
Hyderabad: Philips Electronics India Ltd is resorting to innovative pricing and customer engagement models in India to gain market share and acceptance by ’bottom-of-the-pyramid’ segments and enterprise customers. Clean energy is the common pitch that Philips is making to log in higher customer numbers through such innovations. For instance, in one such initiative, the company has collaborated with Washington-based C Quest...
- Region
- South Asia
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Rural India Gets Chance at Piece of Jobs Boom
BAGEPALLI, India — Under harsh fluorescent lights, dozens of heads bend over keyboards, the clattering unison of earnest typing filling the room. Monitors flicker with insurance forms, time sheets and customer service e-mail messages, tasks from far away, sent to this corner of India to be processed on the cheap.
- Region
- South Asia
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Vietnam: Fund for Pro-Poor Businesses Debuts
The Vietnam Challenge Fund (VCF), a new financial instrument to support new business projects that directly benefit the poor was launched Tuesday in Hanoi. With an initial budget of US$3 million for 2009-2011, the fund is a major component of the "Making Markets Work Better for the Poor Phase 2" initiative. It is backed by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), The Saigon Tim...
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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