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No Straight Road to Poverty Eradication
A major plank in President Museveni’s kisanja project is the eradication of poverty. If there is anything he has expended quantities of energy talking about, it is the imperative to lift the Uganda’s impoverished out of poverty. And he has never been short of quick solutions. Those with long memories recall the much-vaunted entandikwa scheme, for which he even appointed Sisye Kiryapawo minister in charge. For reasons best known to him, and his policy advisors, the President be...
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Poor Nations Lose
Huge profits made by London-based brokers who arrange emissions-cutting projects in developing countries contrast with little benefit for the world’s poorest nations, company and United Nations data shows. The Kyoto Protocol on global warming allows rich countries to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets by paying poor nations to cut emissions on their behalf, using the so-called clean development mechanism (CDM). But evidence is emerging that while brokers stand to mak...
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CARE Turns Down Federal Funds for Food Aid
CARE, one of the world’s biggest charities, is walking away from some $45 million a year in federal financing, saying American food aid is not only plagued with inefficiencies, but also may hurt some of the very poor people it aims to help. CARE’s decision is focused on the practice of selling tons of often heavily subsidized American farm products in African countries that in some cases, it says, compete with the crops of struggling local farmers. The charity says ...
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?Qui?n es ’Sam’ Pitroda?
En M?xico muy pocos conocen a Satyanarayan Gangarm (Sam) Pitroda. Aqu? no fijamos nuestra atenci?n en lo que ?l hace: innovar, crear nuevas empresas, utilizar la tecnolog?a para beneficio de los pobres y ayudar a su pa?s a entrar de lleno a la econom?a del conocimiento. Aqu? estamos demasiado concentrados en las denominadas reformas estructurales o en evitar que se hagan esas reformas; en seguir insistiendo a favor del Consenso de Was-hington o en rechazarlo. Cuando m?s, hacemos referencias ret?...
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In India, One Cheap Car Could Go a Long Way
In many of India’s boomtowns, a car is a quintessential part of the middle-class dream, a symbol of status and comfort that helps a family arrive in style, without a layer of grime from the choking pollution or soggy, mud-stained clothes from the rain. Every afternoon when Sudheer Mahanan, a government forest warden, picks up his two children from school, he is forced to squeeze them onto his moped. As they speed over monsoon-drenched potholes and weave around meandering cows, his...
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Wanted: Web Content for Rural India
Two days back, a close friend called to say that she plans to work on a documentary on how technology is changing the lives of rural Indians. She arm-twisted me into meeting her for lunch, before she vanishes into the remote villages of India for a few months. Two days back, a close friend called to say that she plans to work on a documentary on how technology is changing the lives of rural Indians. She arm-twisted me into meeting her for lunch, before she vanishes into the remote villages...
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There are no VCs yet Dedicated to Clean Tech, Renewable Energy
Suneel Parasnis, country director for Hyderabad-based New Ventures India, talks about how his team identifies businesses best suited for funding. Country director for Hyderabad-based New Ventures India, Suneel Parasnis, helps start-ups in clean technology and renewable energy?areas relatively untouched by venture capital? raise funds. The typical funding requirement is between $100,000 and $5 million (Rs41.6 lakh and Rs20.8 crore). The challenge: most available investors seek deals s...
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World’s Poorest, Living on $1, Get Hypothetical Help in Survey
How many people in the world live on less than $1 a day? When U.S. workers in an online survey answered that question, 23 percent correctly said 1 billion people or more. The survey, sponsored by the nonprofit group Millennium Promise, gathered information from 6,823 employees at U.S. companies and released the results today. Millennium Promise was founded by the economist Jeffrey D. Sachs to help ease extreme poverty in African villages. Sixty percent of the sur...
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