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Tiny Loans Seen as Big Way to Invest in Developing Nations’ Poor
It was at the end of a long, dusty road in Guatemala that Mike Galgon, a Seattle tech entrepreneur, became a believer. He met a woman who used a $50 loan to buy a simple metal-bending machine, allowing her to increase her daily production of buckets from two to 10. By selling the extra buckets, she was able to buy medicine for an ailing daughter, send several other children to school and purchase a second machine to expand her business. At two buckets, you can’t ...
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Report urges reform of business in Brazil
Excerpt: Bewildering bureaucracy, endless paperwork and one of the world?s most onerous tax systems mean that thousands of Brazilian businesses can only survive by operating illegally, according to a report published on Wednesday. The report by the International Finance Corporation finds wide differences among the 13 Brazilian states surveyed but concludes that Brazil needs to radically simplify procedures in order to compete more effectively with other emerging markets.?There is stil...
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India’s tiffinwalas fuel economy
Excerpt: Every morning, 65-year-old Dhondu Chaudhary picks up a lunchbox from Arpana Rao’s home in the suburbs of Mumbai. Mrs Rao relies on Mr Chaudhary to get her husband’s daily lunch delivered to Mumbai’s financial district where he works. That is about an hour away from her home - and looking after her new baby means she barely has time for herself, let alone find the time to deliver a tiffin, or lunchbox, to her husband’s office. That is whe...
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African Farmers try KickStarting Their Farms
Summary: KickStart is a company hoping to help lift African farmers out of poverty by selling them simple water pumps for their crops. Scott Simon talks with Martin Fisher, co-founder of the non-profit company....
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A Little Money Goes A Long Way
Excerpt: Ann Brown and Maria Martinez have never met, but last March Brown loaned Martinez $50. It was part of a $400 loan Martinez needed to get her clothing store up and running in Danli, Honduras. She used the cash to buy colorful hairbands, bright shirts, frilly button-downs, and baby onesies. Sales have picked up, and now Martinez is paying Brown back in monthly installments via the Web site on which they found each other, Kiva.org. When I was starting my handbag business, a neighbor ...
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Philips keen on SADC region factory
Excerpt: Johannesburg - Electronics giant Philips said on Tuesday that it hoped to build a compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) assembly factory in the SADC region - the first of its kind in Africa. Millions of Southern Africans living in both rural and urban households do not have access to electricity, and those that do often struggle to afford quality lighting. Instead, they rely on hazardous paraffin, kerosene or candles which are not only major pollutants, but also often lead to...
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Southern Africa: Conference to Explore Affordable Lighting
Excerpt: In a quest to give access to affordable lighting to millions of households in Southern Africa, an electronics company will host a conference to explore the feasibility of building a factory to manufacture Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) in the region. This because the majority of citizens in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region do not have access to electricity while those who use it still struggle to afford quality lighting. Inste...
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Tata offers Rs 25 cr annual medical aid to poor
Excerpt: The Tata Group and three other top business houses have joined hands with the Jharkhand government to ensure medical treatment to the state’s below poverty line population. Apart from the Tatas, Birla, Essar and Jindal group have formed the Sarva Swasthya Mission Trust -- which will be the first of its kind private-public partnership in the country. This project will provide health coverage and medical treatment to the poorest of the poor in...
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- South Asia
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