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India’s Cell-Phone Ride Out of Poverty
Struggling artisans and tradespeople in rural India are finding that mobile phones are their ticket to better sales and better lives Times are good for Ganesh Bicchwe. The festival season in India is around the corner, and in Maheshwar, a hand-loom weaving center in the central India state of Madhya Pradesh, master weaver Bicchwe’s Nokia (NOK ) 3310 mobile phone is ringing busily. A garment store in New Delhi wants 500 scarves?the broad, 3-meter-long, intricately designed, fine cotton ones w...
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Deutsche Bank Places Micro-Credit Portfolio with Private Investors
Deutsche Bank AG said Wednesday that it has set up an investment portfolio for micro-credit markets, a move aimed at making very small loans available to people in developing countries. FRANKFURT, Germany: Deutsche Bank AG said Wednesday that it has set up an investment portfolio for micro-credit markets, a move aimed at making very small loans available to people in developing countries. The Frankfurt-based bank, Germany’s biggest, said the ?60 million (US$84 million) in bo...
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Mobile Payments: Macro Hype & Micro Trends
There’s currently a lot of noise in the mobile payments segment. Companies such as Firethorn, mFoundry, even Google recently have garnered considerable attention and coverage. Admittedly I’ve looked at the segment at my personal blog, www.mobilepointview.com, recently with Google Sends SMS Mobile Payments: GPay as well as Mobile Payments: The Tipping Point. I think we need to differentiate and identify what can be labeled as macro forces wher...
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Beyond the Bottom Line
Oxford Entrepreneurs Are Meant To Consider How to Save the World OXFORD, England -- The main lecture hall at the University of Oxford’s Sa?d Business School isn’t named for a banking tycoon, a high-tech entrepreneur or a big-ticket donor. It honors former South African President Nelson Mandela, a choice many at the school believe is key to understanding Sa?d. It’s a small little tag that stands for something much bigger that we’re about, wh...
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Global Business Leaders Explore Impact of Technology and Credit
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and CGAP (the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), in collaboration with Visa International today begin a global conference called Next Generation Access to Finance: Gaining Scale and Reducing Costs with Technology and Credit Scoring. The conference will highlight technologies used by pioneering organizations in the financial services industry, including microfinance organizations, to reduce costs and reach new customers. WASHINGTON, D.C. - September 17,...
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Making Goods Affordable for Poor
That suggestion has been criticised on the ground that the market is not geared to cater to the poor. Many people oppose the market mechanism even though poverty is generally less in market economies than in government-controlled socialist ones. Here is an issue that deserves further discussion. Basically, there are two ways of giving the poor what they need at a price they can afford. One - the ideal one - is to convert that need into a public good. The second method is to add frills...
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Underground Industries Flourish Worldwide
More than 50 percent of all Latin Americans, 78 percent of Africans (including South Africa), 65 percent of Asians?excluding those who work in agriculture?work in these gray industries. WASHINGTON?More than 50 percent of all Latin Americans, 78 percent of Africans (including South Africa), 65 percent of Asians?excluding those who work in agriculture?work in these gray industries. Underground industries generally refer to businesses which operate outside a country’s laws by n...
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Social Business Enterprises can Alleviate Poverty
Despite many advances global poverty persists. Models that rely on government action or capitalism narrowly defined as maximization of financial profit are limited in their ability to put poverty where it belongs ? in a museum. 18-September-2007: Despite many advances global poverty persists. Models that rely on government action or capitalism narrowly defined as maximization of financial profit are limited in their ability to put poverty where it belongs ? in a museum. The key missin...
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