NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Why Companies See Bright Prospects in Rural India

In late May, when India’s GDP numbers were released, many were happily surprised. In the fourth quarter of the fiscal year (January-March 2009), the economy grew 5.8% against expectations of less than 5%. For the year, growth was 6.7%, less than the 9% recorded in 2007-2008, but still very respectable during a global downturn. Multinational banks and brokerage houses rushed back to their spreadsheets to raise their growth forecasts for 2009-2010. But why were the estimates so pessim...

Source

Knowledge@Wharton (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Business groups to lend money to SMEs through microfinancing

MANILA, Philippines – Businessmen have committed to helping Filipinos affected by the global economic crunch by lending money for capital to small scale entrepreneurs through microfinance activities. “We have pushed corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the corporate sector for many years from the conferences that we have organized. We have seen CSR evolve as a practice and a responsibility in each corporation’s CSR strategy,” Marilou Erni, League of Corporate...

Source

The Phillippine Star (link opens in a new window)

Region

Asia Pacific

India Inc for PPP to better quality of education

The education industry is looking at an increased public-private partnership (PPP) in educational and training initiatives for matching skill-set demands of the industry with the available talent. Education is among a few sectors that has been insulated from the impact of a global economic slowdown but faces a huge challenge of reducing the gap of educated yet unemployable talent. “We would like to see more investment in PPP programmes to improve education quality at the bottom of...

Source

Hindustan TImes (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

The Nano Home: India’s Cheap Housing Boom

Indian property developers cater to the masses with low-cost housing LAST month ten-year-old Azharuddin Ismail was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of bulldozers. As policemen beat him with a bamboo stick to shoo him and his family away, his home in Mumbai’s slums was swiftly demolished. Azhar, a celebrity since appearing in the film "Slumdog Millionaire", has since been given a new home by the filmmakers. But other residents were not so fortunate. India’s c...

Source

The Economist (link opens in a new window)

Tags

housing

LeapFrog Raises $44 Million for World’s First Microinsurance Fund

LUXEMBOURG, June 16, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----In a breakthrough for microfinance and alternative investment, the LeapFrog Financial Inclusion Fund announced today that it has raised US$44 million. It is the world’s first investment fund focused on microinsurance. The fund aims to invest in businesses that will bring insurance and financial services to 25 million low-income people in Africa and Asia. The capital was raised from a diverse set of public and private investors ar...

Source

Fox Business (link opens in a new window)

Citadel eyeing slice of $2.3trn market

With the global economy turning on its head in the past year, private sector investors have the unprecedented opportunity to participate in a rapidly growing consumer market comprising the world’s 3.7 billion limited-income earners. "The billions of individuals who claim the smallest pool of the world’s wealth represent, collectively, a rapidly-growing consumer market, an underutilised productive sector, and vast entrepreneurial energy," said Hisham El Khazindar, Co-Founde...

Source

Business 24/7 (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

Mobile money to poor seen $5 billion market in 2012

By Tarmo Virki , EMEA technology correspondent HELSINKI (Reuters) - The market of mobile financial services to poor people in emerging markets will surge from nothing to $5 billion in 2012, U.S.-based microfinance policy and research center CGAP said on Monday. Mobile money is one of the hottest topics in the wireless world, but so far take-up of services has been mostly limited to a few emerg...

Source

Reuters (link opens in a new window)

Bull Market in Social Entrepreneurs

For graduating students at Stanford University, it’s all too clear that the economy’s in the tank. The venture capital industry, with its epicenter just down the road, is stalled. The unemployment rate in Santa Clara County has doubled in the past year, to 10.9%, as employers across techdom eliminate jobs and scale back expansion plans. Career fairs, students say, feature lots of recruiters handing out business cards, but few jobs. A host of seniors who in past years would have ...

Source

Business Week (link opens in a new window)