-
Cheap computers for emerging markets. How is that going to evolve?
This year, there is a big push to make cheap computers for emerging markets. How is that going to have to evolve? A $300 computer is still going to be too expensive for many, probably, in Russia, India and other places. Well, that’s not really true. The expensive thing is the connectivity. Getting Internet connectivity is expensive. If all they had to do was pay for the computer--$300--and the communications were free, then we’d see that PC usage would be very, very big. Iron...
- Source
- Portalino
-
Selling to the Poor
It?s becoming a familiar strategy. Emerging economies like Africa, Latin America, and China are offering fertile ground to startups and major companies?including Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and DuPont?which face saturated markets in the richest industrial countries. These poorer regions are wielding another power: dictating products that are cheaper, and sometimes better, than their Western counterparts. ...
- Source
- Red Herring
-
Now Private Firms Eye State Hospitals, by Luke Mulunda
Yesterday, the Kenya Health Federation said given the chance, the private sector could put up a basic structure that would avail quality healthcare to all Kenyans. The government should at least contract out badly run and managed facilities to us, said Maliti, who also doubles as the executive director of the Kenya Private Sector Foundation. This will be consistent with its commitment to a market-driven economy where private enterprise plays a major role in developing goo...
- Source
- The East African Standard (Nairobi)
-
Group Puts $100 Laptops in Poor Countries
The laptops would be mass-produced in orders of no smaller than 1 million units and bought by governments, which would distribute them. Ambitious projects to bridge the digital divide in the developing world at low cost have had a shaky track record. Perhaps the best example is the Simputer, a $220 handheld device developed by Indian scientists in 2001 that only last year became available and isn’t selling well. But Negroponte and MIT colleagues Joe Jacobson and Seymour Papert aren...
- Source
- Associated Press
-
Rebuilding Tsunami-Ravaged South Asia through Sustainable Means , by Stuart Hart
Indeed, with the South Asia coastline in ruins, there is an opportunity to drive the reconstruction process through an enterprise-based model organized around a vision of sustainable development. For visionary companies, this offers the chance to leapfrog directly to clean technology, wireless telecommunications, distributed generation of renewable energy, point of use water purification, sustainable agriculture, and environmentally-sound building techniques. For the financial sector, the...
- Source
- RenewableEnergyAccess.com
-
Kenyan Village Serves as Test Case in Fight on Poverty
The researchers behind the [Millennium Village Project] are keeping track of every penny they spend, trying to demonstrate that for a modest amount, somewhere around $110 per person, a village can be tugged out of poverty. They have tried to measure exactly how bad Sauri was at the start of the project last fall. Every home was surveyed to get an accurate portrait of the population. Blood tests were taken among a smaller group for a nutritional analysis, because many villagers eat only onc...
- Source
- The New York Times
-
Reinventing Pepsi, by George Skaria
It also meant that companies wanted to tap into the larger market base at the bottom of the pyramid. In recent times, Rajeev Bakshi, chairman, Pepsi India however takes a stance quite contrary to current popular strategies that companies are adopting. Says Mr Bakshi, ?Today, the question is: are you tapping into the right opportunity? I met up with CK Prahalad (who advocates tapping the bottom of the pyramid) about ten days back. He is buying the perspective now. The five rupee strategy is out o...
- Source
- The Financial Express
-
World Bank to support music industry in Ghana
In an interview with Ghana News Agency, Professor Komla Amoaku, Executive Director, Institute for Music and Development, said the initiative would expand Ghana’s export base substantially through the exploration of new areas of competitive advantage. He called for the creation of the rightful business environment that could spearhead the huge potential of Ghana’s Music Industry and support poverty reduction, wealth creation and employment generation. He said these were all necessary...
- Source
- Ghana News Agency
The Best of NextBillion in Your Inbox Each Week!
Subscribe to NB Notes for news, jobs & on-the-ground insights from the world of emerging markets business.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.