NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Venture capitalists descend on India

Unlike private equity investment, the venture capital industry remains in its infancy in India. Private equity deal volumes are expected to triple to $7bn by 2010 compared with $2.2bn in 2005, according??to??Bain,??the??consultancy. But investment in start-ups accounts for only about 20 per cent of the total number of private equity and venture capital deals done in India, according to Venture Intelligence, a domestic company that tracks private equity and venture capital d...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Public Private Partnerships an Imperative for Achieving Rural Development

In addition, he said, that accessibility to rural communities would thrive when the Private and Pubic Partnership (PPP) is entrenched. PPP is the key to moving the rural people ahead, he declared. Meanwhile, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, has warned that Africa may suffer another round of digital divide based on lack of data in the evolution of telecommunications on the continent.

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Highway Africa News Agency (link opens in a new window)

Uganda: ICT Boosts Farmers’ Profits

If used properly, Information Communication Technology (ICT) could be used to develop agriculture, for example we can now just call and get to know the prices of our products. We can also access them from MTN’s 197 and 198. Even middlemen who come looking for the products find us already aware of the prices, they no longer cheat us, Kamya says. With a village phone at her residence, she only needs to call and know about the market prices for her red pepper, tomatoes, potatoes, ca...

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New Vision (link opens in a new window)

For India’s Traditional Fisherman, Cellphones Deliver a Sea Change

A convenience taken for granted in wealthy nations, the cellphone is putting cash in the pockets of people for whom a dollar is a good day’s wage. And it has made market-savvy entrepreneurs out of sheepherders, rickshaw drivers and even the acrobatic men who shinny up palm trees to harvest coconuts here in Kerala state. The cellphone is bringing new economic clout, profit and productivity to Rajan and millions of other poor laborers in India, the world’s fastest-growing cellphone market....

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The Washington Post (link opens in a new window)

Malaria Treatment Grabs $20M

Amyris Biotechnologies is currently focusing on an alternative treatment for malaria, as the disease is becoming resistant to common drugs. The treatment itself already exists in the form of artemisinin, taken from wormwood. But extracting the drug is both complicated and expensive to do; Amyris is looking end-run the process by synthetically producing an in-house, low-cost version of drug. It?s a mission that carries big names: the University of California, Berkeley, and the Institute for One W...

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Red Herring (link opens in a new window)

U.S. Group Reaches Deal to Provide Laptops to All Libyan Schoolchildren

The government of Libya reached an agreement on Tuesday with One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit United States group developing an inexpensive, educational laptop computer, with the goal of supplying machines to all 1.2 million Libyan schoolchildren by June 2008. The project, which is intended to supply computers broadly to children in developing nations, was conceived in 2005 by a computer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nicholas Negroponte. His goal is to desi...

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The New York Times (link opens in a new window)

Microfinance Institutions Reach Crucial Agreement with Government in Andhra Pradesh

In a broad reaching agreement, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) operating in Andhra Pradesh, India have reached an agreement with the state government on MFI interest rates, product portfolio, inter-MFI competition, credit disbursement and loan recovery methodologies. An agreement pertaining to a smaller jurisdiction ? the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh was earlier reported on MicroCapital. As per the terms of the agreement, MFIs have agreed to an interest rate ceiling of 15%. Th...

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MicroCapital (link opens in a new window)

US Banks Woo Migrants, Legal or Otherwise

As U.S. leaders craft policies to curb illegal immigration from Mexico, the U.S. Federal Reserve is devising programs to extend banking services to undocumented immigrants. A new remittance program aims to bring Mexican migrants who send money home into the mainstream U.S. financial system, regardless of their immigration status. Dubbed Directo a Mexico, the remittance program enables U.S. commercial banks to make money transfers for Mexican workers through the Federal Res...

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The Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

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migrants