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Google Offers a Map for Its Philanthropy
The second initiative, called ?the missing middle,? refers to the missing middle class in Africa and South Asia and the missing middle level of financing between microcredits and hedge funds. Microcredit funds currently provide families with three or four or five days of livelihood, Dr. Brilliant said. ?No country,? he said, ?has ever emerged from poverty because of microcredit. Jobs make that possible. China did it with manufacturing, India did it with outsourced call centers.? ...
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The Hunt for Profits Goes South
With Purchasing Power Rising, Euro Firms Eye Developing World By Julia Bonstein Ever on the lookout for tomorrow’s customers, Western corporations have set their sights on industrializing economies and developing nations. It’s a huge opportunity, but low cost isn’t the only important criterion for a vast new group of consumers. Innovations are also important for this growing market. The One Laptop per Child initiative ha...
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Going Wireless: Dialing for Development
Author: David Lehr Going Wireless: Dialing for Development How Mobile Devices are Transforming Economic Development at the Base of the Pyramid A draft white paper by former Acumen Fellow David Lehr has just been posted on the Acumen Fund blog that describ...
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Poverty reduction for profit? A critical examination of business opportunities at the bottom of the
Authors: J. L. Warnholz Publisher: Queen Elizabeth House Library, University of Oxford, 2007. The author examines the idea that selling consumer goods to poor people at the bottom of the economic pyramid (BoP) generates profits for large businesses and eliminates poverty at the same time. He admits that big businesses have a central role in shaping future markets and generating employment. The entry of multinationals in the BoP sector would also reduce prices, raise ...
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The Nano Inspiration
The lessons of design innovation, scale efficiency, vendor networking can help in hundreds of challenges By Ramesh Ramanathan I am inspired by the story of the Tata Nano. Beyond its cute look or frugal engineering-driven price tag, I find it remarkable how team Tata pulled it off in just four years. I?ve watched and read the rumblings ?on congestion, traffic, the environment. Confession: I own a car. This makes it hard for me to criticiz...
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A Nano Leap Into the Future
He’s been hailed as the world’s foremost thinker. He revolutionized the way corporate chiefs looked at markets through his bestseller, ’The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid’. And now, management mahaguru C. K. Prahalad writes exclusively for Sunday Times on the Nano launch. By C.K. Prahalad He’s been hailed as the world’s foremost thinker. He revolutionized the way corporate chiefs looked at markets through his bestseller, ’The Fortune at the B...
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Chip and Car Makers Fire Cheap Shots in Low Spending Battle
Intel’s move into affordable computers, and Tata’s launch of the $2,500 car, signal growing recognition that redesigning for currently excluded low-income customers may be the only way to avoid a profit-scrapping scramble for the affluent minority. With disposable incomes threatening to stagnate in industrial countries, and still comparatively low in those newly industrialising, affordability might even displace the currently fashionable drive for sustainability.? By Alan Ship...
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Indians Hit the Road Amid Elephants
By Somini Sengupta A few weeks ago, the traditional Indian joint family household of Vineet Sharma, a fertilizer industry consultant, achieved a long deferred dream. Having ferried themselves on scooters all these years, the Sharmas bought a brand-new, silver-gray hatchback known as the Tata Indica. Never mind that none of the six adult members of the household knew how to drive. No sooner had the car arrived than Mr. Sharma, 34, took it for a spin and knocked over...
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