NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Micro Pension Plan Set to Get off the Block

The government may be struggling to convince the Left about the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and the need to channel a slice of the pension and provident fund kitty into equity. Shaji Vikraman But there?s hope round in an unlikely source. Early next week, 50,000 women, many of them struggling to eke out a living, will sign up for the country?s first micro pension scheme. These ladies, members of Ahmedabad?s Self-Employed Wom...

Source

Economic Times, India (link opens in a new window)

Hong Kong’s initial foray into BOP enterprise development

More than 300 participants from various sectors on Thursday attended the Conference on Social Enterprise to discuss new approach to helping the poor. The conference, jointly organized by the Commission on Poverty and the Central Policy Unit of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, aims to enhance community understanding of social enterprise and explain its relevance to poverty alleviation. The one-day conference was the first of its kind and scale in Hong ...

Source

Xinhua Online (link opens in a new window)

Region

Asia Pacific

Chip maker moves forward with plans to sell an affordable desktop PC in developing countries. Jeremy Kirk Intel has partnered with a Mexican telecoms company to sell an affordable PC designed for first-time computer users in developing countries. It’s the latest effort by technology vendors to develop products for emerging markets. Advertisement Intel said the PC would be a small, energy efficient system with full-featured PC technologies. It will be cheaper than...

Source

PC World (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

NOKIA has significantly raised its outlook for the global mobile phone market, saying it would grow by 15 per cent or more this year, which would mean shipments of about 914 million handsets. The Finnish market leader’s previous forecast was for growth of 10 per cent or more from about 795 million handsets in 2005. Motorola, the world’s No2 handset maker, does not produce overall forecasts but was thought to be in line with Nokia’s original numbers. Speaking y...

Source

The Weekend Australian (link opens in a new window)

JB: This is Earth & Sky, on the need for fresh water and the use of simple technologies in the developing world DB: They can make a huge difference for some of the billion-plus people on Earth today who live in poverty so extreme that they are at risk of dying every day. Consider the Sahel region of Africa. It’s been in drought conditions for decades. When rains do come, reservoirs and wells fill up. But, in some places, the water has to be carried to farmer’s fields by h...

Source

Earth & Sky Radio Series (link opens in a new window)

Private-Public partnership model to improve the livelihoods of the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP)

CII - ICRISAT & Coca-Cola Foundation Collaboration for Backward Areas Development through Strategic Intervention in Watershed Development The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Coca-Cola Foundation will collaborate for sustainable and equitable management of Rural Water Resources Infrastructure and other Natural Resources Management (NRM) through watershed+ interventions in Dungarpur district...

Source

Moneycontrol.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Winners to be announced May 11

After months of preparation by participants in the inaugural Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Competition, the finalists have officially been selected. On March 30th, fourteen semi-finalists and their teams were joined by members of the St. Louis community at a speaker event held at Washington University. Serving as keynote speaker for this event was Theresa Wilson, founder of The Blessing Basket Project, a sustainable non-profit operating in 5 countries around the world which...

Source

Washington University in St. Louis (link opens in a new window)

Chasing Capital

Two local microfinance nonprofits are recruiting private investors to join them in their fight against global poverty. Redmond-based Unitus Inc. recently completed a $9 million initial close on a $20 million private equity fund meant to buy stock in its microfinance partners. The new money will provide additional resources for the nonprofit’s eight microfinance partners, which are located abroad and backed by Unitus-facilitated grants and loans. Those partners currently provide s...

Source

MSNBC (link opens in a new window)