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Crossing the Divide – The business of social good
Three years ago when we first started looking for money, we had only social venture funds interested in us; now, in the last month, I have got calls from mainstream venture capital funds who are interested in investing,” says Ashwin Naik, founder of Vaatsalya Healthcare Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a start-up that is building a chain of low-cost hospitals in rural and semi-urban India. That perhaps indicates how far for-profit social enterprises have travelled in the last few years to be r...
- Region
- South Asia
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Re-emerging Poor a Target for Some Retailers
BELGRADE (Reuters) - As recession squeezes the fledgling middle classes of emerging economies, special shops for the poor are seizing the opportunities. Slovenia and Serbia are among countries opening "SOS" shops that allow custom only from those officially registered as poor, who need special cards to access them. "We see this effort as a new retail concept," Trade Minister Slobodan Milosavljevic said at a ceremony in March to open the first SOS shop, a whitewashed old house with...
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Suman Bery: Mexican Surprises
Mexico tends to be in the news for all the wrong reasons: financial crisis, illegal immigration, drug-lords, and most recently as the apparent origin of the H1N1 virus. A recent visit there allowed me the privilege of seeing a very different side of Mexican life. It also stimulated reflection as to what lies ahead for India as it gets richer and urbanises further. Mexico’s population of 105 million makes it the second most populous nation in Latin America after Brazil. Its p...
- Region
- Latin America
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State of affairs in subcontinent may hurt entrepreneurship
Miami, US: US-based Endeavor Global, a non-profit group formed in 1997 and whose mission is to promote the growth of entrepreneurs in emerging markets, selects what it calls “high impact” entrepreneurs from developing nations and offers them intensive strategic and management support. By high impact, Endeavor means these firms have the potential to inspire large scale change in the lives of people and improve the economy. Entrepreneurship in India, it says, has a bigger risk...
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N7.3bn Microfinance Equity Fund for Nigeria, Ghana
The gap between the demand for and supply of micro credit for micro-financing of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the Anglophone West Africa has drawn the attention of some business development companies to launch a fund that would pool funds together to fill up this gap basically in Nigeria and Ghana. Alitheia Capital ( Nigeria ), Goodwell Investments (The Netherlands) and JCS Investments Limited ( Ghana ) have come together to launch a fund focused on investing in and developing...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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After a Small Car, it?s a Small Home from Tata Housing
Bangalore: Soon after Tata Motors Ltd launched the Nano, touted as the world’s cheapest car, another group company announced on Wednesday that it will build homes that cost between Rs3.9 lakh and Rs6.7 lakh. Privately held Tata Housing Development Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd, has launched the first of these projects, branded Shubh Griha, in Boisar, a distant suburb in Mumbai, the company said. The firm will invest up to Rs100 crore in a 1,200-unit township in the ...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- housing
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GE Healthcare Innovates in India for Bottom of the Pyramid
GE Healthcare, the $17 billion health solutions business of General Electric Co, is acquiring a dual focus in India which is both similar to what it has for other emerging markets and also different. Like so many other MNCs, it is targeting emerging markets, of which India represents a major chunk, as a critical growth area. But India is also rapidly becoming a key geography where some of the innovative products to address the market at the bottom of the pyramid are being developed. ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Something to Cheer: Nano Homes for Rs 3-5 Lakh
BANGALORE: Creating products and services for the bottom of the pyramid is the sweet spot where social objectives marry economic benefits. After cars and mobile calls, developers and social entrepreneurs are looking at creating ‘Nano’ homes. On the anvil are houses for between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh for a constituency as diverse as domestic help, taxi drivers, plumbers, senior citizens, graduates, newly wed couples - basically, those who earn between Rs 6,500 and Rs 13,000 ...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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