NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Financial Inclusion Through Wireless Technology

One of the more popular seminars at the The Economic Times Banking Technology Conclave 2007 was titled Banking Sector Next Frontier - Serving the Under Banked Profitably. Can technology, especially wireless enabled serve the un-served market? The panel was a mix of technologists, bankers and a micro-financer with extensive experience at the rural level. The session was chaired by MBN Rao, the CMD of Canara Bank. One of the more popular seminars at the The Economic Times Banking...

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The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Safaricom: On a Tear in Africa

Visitors to the headquarters of Safaricom in Nairobi must first face the scrutiny of a pair of imposing uniformed guards who peer sternly at vehicle occupants before lowering a hydraulically operated metal roadblock that looks strong enough to stop a speeding truck. The tight security is a reminder that Kenya, though relatively prosperous and stable by African standards, is still a difficult place to run a mobile-phone company. Safaricom, a 60-40 joint venture of the Kenyan government...

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Yahoo Asia News (link opens in a new window)

Beware of Bad Microcredit

Companies are racing to add poverty-reducing microcredit initiatives to their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Their hearts may be in the right place, but these well-intentioned efforts can backfire. Don?t misunderstand: Microcredit can raise borrowers? standard of living and help reduce poverty. In the past three years we?ve brokered investments in more than 150 carefully selected microcredit programs and have seen positive effects firsthand, including improved schoo...

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Harvard Business Review (link opens in a new window)

Micro Coverage a Big Help for Mexico’s Poor

A new plan to promote microinsurance could have a ripple effect in the region. Adela Amaya Chavez never considered life insurance. In fact she had no idea what it was. But on a recent day when inquiring about a loan at Banco Azteca to repair the leaky drains in her home in Mexico City, she was told that if she paid an additional $2 a week her family would receive $6,000 if she were to die. Her first thought: the death of her nephew in a car accident in 2003 and the devast...

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The Christian Science Monitor (link opens in a new window)

Business Model Innovation- New Opportunities

What do ITMG, Sankalp and Suschama have in common? They are all new business venture ideas focused at bringing the best if consulting and supply chain optimisation to small and medium enterprises that have been created by students while still in college. The enterprising students of the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) in Mumbai, supported by a visionary Professor, Dr T Prasad at the institute, have come up with this unique concept of ?Student Companies (SCs)?, whi...

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Hindustan Times (link opens in a new window)

Turning Wastes Into Bottomline

How Indian Industry is managing quality? ? In the past two articles, I highlighted examples of innovations in two organisations ? one, a large business house, and the other, a small company innovating for the bottom of the pyramid. ? In this article, the focus is on innovation for sustainable development by a manufacturing company ? Brakes India Ltd -- Foundry Division (BI Foundry). With the world becoming evermore environmentally conscious and technologies having to conform ...

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Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

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waste

A Farewell to Alms

When celebrities such as Angelina Jolie or Bono highlight human tragedy to show that something can be done to alleviate it, the heart melts and the purse strings loosen. But the stars, alas, aren’t up on the economic literature. Research is increasingly questioning the benefits of foreign aid. For a long time, persistent underdevelopment in aid-receiving countries fostered doubts about whether the do-good impulse was doing permanent good. Validation seemed to arrive with two World...

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Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Money Sent Home Vital for Survival

At least three or four times a year, Saher sends a portion of her salary home. The money helps her parents buy necessities, and even creates a bit of savings in a place where the few jobs that still exist often don’t pay for months, if at all. Saher al-Jamil tries to call home, but once again the lines are dead. She isn’t worried because she is used to that by now. Reaching her parents in Gaza is no easy task, what with electricity being so unpredictable there. Everything is u...

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The Toronto Star (link opens in a new window)