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Rice Power: Cisco, DFJ Award Seed Money to Husk Power Systems
We first wrote about Husk Power Systems, a startup that turns rice husks into energy, back in November 2008. Now the startup, which already powers an entire small town in India, has beat out over 1,000 competitors to win the Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Cisco-sponsored Global Business Plan Competition. As a result, Husk will receive a $250,000 seed round. Husk Power Systems, founded in 2007 by University of Virginia business students Chip Ransler and Manoj Sinha, operates 35 kW to 100 kW...
- Region
- South Asia
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India?s New Retailers
I n a dry and dusty fair in Osmanabad, a small town tucked away in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, a thousand women have just spoken. Their verdict is loud and clear. CANDY RED. Consumer durables firm Godrej & Boyce is parading several colours of its new breakthrough product, ChotuKool, a nano refrigerator. A few fluorescent colours come first. The women vote this out with a cacophonous show of hands. They know what they want. Candy Red. ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Fund houses target the bottom of the pyramid
Savita Devi, a daily wage earner in Gujarat, is saving for her future through a mutual fund. And she has company. Around 150,000 small investors are putting Rs 50-200 per month in UTI Asset Management Company’s (AMC’s) Micro Pension Plan. UTI AMC is not the only fund house targeting the bottom-of-the-pyramid investors to extend its presence. SBI Mutual Fund, an affiliate of State Bank of India (SBI), also launched a ‘Chota Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)’ in Apr...
- Region
- South Asia
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Grameen Foundation and Google create mobile apps for Africa
Posted by Kristi Heim Real time information about farming, health and trading will be available to mobile phone users in Uganda with new technology services developed by the Grameen Foundation, Google and telecom operator MTN Uganda. The Grameen Foundation saw the proliferation of mobile phones in Africa as a way to get ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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India needs a brilliant wave of entrepreneurs
MUMBAI NEW DELHI: Zeus, for once, was thwarted as the driving rain and rolling thunder failed to dampen the cheery mood at the concluding chapter of The Power of Ideas programme in Mumbai. The Times of India building was the venue for the interaction between shortlisted candidates and investors from the Indian Angel Network (IAN), VCs and incubators. There was a flurry of activity as entrepreneurs and ...
- Region
- South Asia
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The missing middle to drive sustainable growth
Just imagine how different the world would be if, back in Microsoft’s earliest days, Bill Gates had been unable to find anyone to invest in him or if a decade ago the same had happened to Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page as they tried to get the business going from the garage of a suburban home in California. Entrepreneurs the world over who try to start up and grow businesses face the problem of lack of access to finance. Often, they also experience an equ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Bolivian Microfinance
Bolivia has been the success story in microfinance in Latin America in the last twenty years. I decided to spend one week in La Paz to better understand the business model of the Bolivian microfinance institutions. During the six day stay in La Paz I had the privilege of meeting the Executive Director of Bolivia’s Financial Services Supervisory Authority (ASFI) Ernesto Rivero, the former President of Bancosol and Prodem Fernando Romero Moreno, the President of the Bolivian Academy of Ec...
- Region
- Latin America
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Safe, comfy and chatting away – women?s empowerment at PCO booths
New Delhi, June 28 (IANS) Anjali Kher, 33, a small-time designer from Srinagar, keeps in touch with her family in the Kashmir Valley from the public telephone booth next to her home in Delhi. “The booth remains open till midnight and I drop in almost every day after work to call my father and my brothers,” Kher, who lives in Mayur Vihar, told IANS. The public telephone - including the PCO (public call office) phone booths with STD facilities - in India has become a too...
- Region
- South Asia
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