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Engineer of the Year Finalist: Martin Fisher
With a Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Stanford University and expertise in the acoustic elasticity of aluminum alloys, Martin Fisher seemed destined for a career in the aerospace industry. Instead, he decided to use his engineering skills to help Africa’s poor. Or more precisely, help the poor help themselves. (Design News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) With a Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Stanford University and expertise in the acoustic elasticity of alu...
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In India, Rural Poor Are Key To Cellular Firm’s Expansion
Heat, High Costs Pose Problems for Towers; Mr. Price’s Innovations GURGAON, India -- Don Price got his start in the cellphone industry in the 1980s installing clunky phones in luxury cars in Orlando, Fla. Today, most of his millions of prospective customers don’t have cars, regular electricity or even running water. The 44-year-old former Navy technician is the director of networks for India’s largest cellular company, Bharti Airtel Ltd., which is trying to blanket this ho...
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The Global Water Crisis: Innovations to Watch For
In the debate over how to manage the world’s finite natural resources, one issue that has stood out is water. Water pervades all sectors of society and is critical for short-term survival and human health as well as long-term economic development and environmental sustainability. Environmental problems, especially human-induced climate change, add to these pressures. Since water is a critical resource that is essential for sustaining life, the provision, supply and management of w...
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Africa: Engage the Poor in Business
AfricaNews - I look at micro-financing as building entrepreneurs and funding small business in a community that belongs to a category which are living far less than $2 a day and that includes most parts of Africa. A lot of organizations, including the private sector, send assistance to nations belonging to this category, but still, poverty is not resolved. As an artist and a banker, my view is that poverty can be alleviated, if not completely abolished by micro-financing, or partnering wit...
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Connecting Rural Nepal to the Global Village
MAHABIR PUN , a 2007 Magsaysay awardee, explains the strategies and lessons learned in his wireless communication projects in remote, rural Nepal. Over the past few years a great deal of attention has been placed on issues of information and communication technology access and the ?digital divide? by development organizations and governments throughout the world. The wireless project that we have started in Nepal has taken a serious look at the same issues, but it approached the ...
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SMEs Key to Poverty Reduction, Socam Says
Entrepreneurship, establishment and promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME?s) is the only way through which the majority of the population could be lifted from the jaws of poverty, delegates at the just ended annual conference for Society of Accountants in Malawi (Socam) held in Mangochi said. In his presentation entitled ?Saving for investment: Strategies for wealth creation?, market analyst and Chief Executive of Alliance Capital Limited Godfrey Jowah said although it was al...
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Mobile Phones Widen Market, Raise Incomes for Rural Poor
The mobile phone is enabling people at the bottom of the pyramid like balloon sellers and water melon vendors to widen their markets. The mobile provides the balloon seller timely information about the crowd gatherings, his potential market. The handset comes in handy for the watermelon vendor during the nine months of off- season to find work as repairman. Thousands of artisans are finding that the mobile connects them to their markets and even opens new markets for them. These and oth...
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Uncomfortable Truths
WIKIPEDIA defines corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a concept which suggests that organizations, especially business organizations, have an obligation to consider the interests of customers, employees, shareholders, communities, and the ecology in all aspects of their operation. I have four propositions to expand on this definition. MANILA, Philippines -- WIKIPEDIA defines corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a concept which suggests that organizations, especially business o...
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