NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

India, Nepad in Talks Over Satellite Network, by Jonathan Katzenellenbogen

The proposed Indian network will primarily provide internet, tele- education, tele-medicine, videoconferencing and voice-over internet protocol services. It will also support government e-governance projects, as well as entertainment, resource mapping and meteorological services. Such systems have considerable potential to deliver education and heath care to rural and resource-poor areas with the advantage of offering large cost and time savings. Nearly four years after its launch, ...

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Business Day (Johannesburg)

Millennium Challenge Corporation Signs Compact with Madagascar

Today, the United States , through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, signed a four-year Compact with the Government of the Republic of Madagascar worth close to $110 million. This first Millennium Challenge Compact will reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth in Madagascar by focusing in three areas: property rights, the financial sector, and agricultural business investment. Press release ...

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Millennium Challenge Corporation

CIDA announces new development partners:

Developing countries where Canada can make a difference CIDA will target its efforts in the following sectors: governance, health (with a focus on HIV/AIDS), basic education, private-sector development, and environmental sustainability, with gender equality as a cross-cutting theme that is systematically and explicitly integrated across all programming. These sectors are all fundamental to human well-being and crucial to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, internatio...

New Partnership Will Support Newspapers in Developing Countries

The World Association of Newspapers and the Media Development Loan Fund are teaming up to invest major funds in newspaper projects in developing countries. WAN, the global association of the world’s press, and MDLF, a non-profitorganization providing low cost financing to news businesses in developing countries, are creating a partnership to provide low-interest loans to help carefully selected independent media companies in developing democracies to become financially viable bus...

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editorsweblog.org

Expanded Markets and Products Mark New Face of Microfinance, ADB Annual Report Says

The microfinance industry is changing from a sector heavily dependent on external assistance to commercial operations run by some of the region’s most influential financial institutions, according to the Annual Report 2004 of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) released today. Expanded product lines and broader markets are now hallmarks of the industry, the Report says, in a special theme chapter on Th...

Innovative Managed Care model to be launched on a pilot scale, by Falaknaaz Syed

A unique Managed care model comprising of a partnership between family doctors and the general population through Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) supported by general insurance companies will be launched on a pilot scale in Mumbai within the next three months. The proposed HMO under the aegis of Padmabhushan Dr RD Lele, eminent senior physician of Mumbai is being explored with the partnership of organisation group such as the Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, a not-for-profit consumer body...

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Express Healthcare Management

Use ICTs to address rural poverty and unemployment: Indian minister, by Rahul Kumar

New Delhi: Major Indian companies have ventured into rural areas to tap villagers for their services and products through information and communication technologies (ICTs), including the Internet and portals. This potential of the use of ICTs for developing rural areas has also enthused the government as well as the World Bank, both of which plan to scale up their work in rural areas in India. At a seminar on ?Bridging the Digital Divide: Towards Developing CSR Strategy and Business Model...

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OneWorld South Asia

The Africa You Never See, by Carol Pineau

Yes, Africa is a land of wars, poverty and corruption. The situation in places like Darfur, Sudan, desperately cries out for more media attention and international action. But Africa is also a land of stock markets, high rises, Internet cafes and a growing middle class. This is the part of Africa that functions. And this Africa also needs media attention, if it’s to have any chance of fully joining the global economy. Africa’s media image comes at a high cost, even, at the extreme,...

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The Washington Post