NextBillion - A WDI Publication

HBS Cases: One Laptop per Child

Drop it on the ground. Sprinkle water on its surface. Let it sit in the sun and expose it to swarms of dust?the XO laptop is designed to handle most any abuse from a child. But the journey of the XO laptop from concept to the educational tool for the world’s poorest children is turning out to be a bit more complicated than originally anticipated. A new Harvard Busines...

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Working Knowledge (HBS) (link opens in a new window)

Is Micro Lending The Future Of Giving?

I met Emily Stenning while we were both studying at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. From the moment I met her, she was constantly working on something: a committee, a foundation, a charity. To me, she is the epitome of the youth movement that we here at Living admire and believe is the future of global activism and philanthropy. Emily recently moved to India (after founding the Timau Children’s Foundation...

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The Huffington Post (link opens in a new window)

Rural Health Clinic in a Box

Nestled among residential homes on a quiet, leafy street just steps from Bangalore’s busy BTM Ring Road stands the single-story office of Neurosynaptic Communications . The five-year-old company still has the feel of a startup: bare red and yellow walls, empty desks, and 20 or so young techies huddled over their PCs in the research and development lab. The simplicity of the office is deceptive. Neurosynaptic’s product ...

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BusinessWeek (link opens in a new window)

They’re behind you

WE STARTED out abroad as ?accidental tourists?,? says Anand Mahindra, managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian maker of tractors and off-road vehicles. Owed money by a Greek manufacturing plant, it took an equity stake instead, and so Mahindra Hellenic was born in 1984. Mahindra & Mahindra is now one of 100 companies from the developing world that Boston Consulting Group (BCG) thinks have the clout and ambition to upset the world’s multinationals. The cons...

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The Economist (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

The utopian myth of India?s double dividend

Sheila Dikshit, chief minister of the Indian capital territory of Delhi, looks neither fat nor nervous, but she was disarmingly frank this week about the difficulties of coping with an annual influx of half a million migrants into her metropolis of 16m. ?I?ve put on some weight merely because I want to drown my anxiety by eating,? she told a conference of the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry. If her administration did not meet the needs of Delhi?s inhabi...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

GOOD Q&A: Jacqueline Novogratz

Here at GOOD , we’re fortunate to work with some amazing nonprofit partners. But, to borrow a line from the indelible Reading Rainbow , don’t take our word for it. We caught up with Acumen Fund Founder and CEO Jacqueline Novogratz to learn about Acumen, finding solutions to global poverty,...

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Good Magazine (link opens in a new window)

Market Power: Mobile phones empower the base of the pyramid

By Robert S. Katz & Ana P. Escalante For Babu Rajan, a fisherman in Pallipuram, India, a new mobile phone brings substantial improvements to his daily existence. Rajan used to arrive at port with his daily catch and take whatever price the fish dealers were offering, according to Washington Post reporter Kevin Sullivan. If he tried to find another buyer with a better price it would take too long, and his fish would spoil. Local buyers knew these fishermen had no choice...

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World View Magazine (link opens in a new window)

Full-spectrum dominance

MUMBAI’s trains are famous for carrying what is officially called a ?super-dense crush load? of passengers during rush hour. Judging by the complaints of some of India’s mobile operators, its airwaves are just as overcrowded. The operators added more than 8m mobile-phone subscribers in October, bringing the total to over 217m. India has met its ambitious target, set two years ago, of 250m fixed and mobile-phone connections. But the government is sadly unprepared. It has not given Indi...

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The Economist (link opens in a new window)