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The new sexy: Social entrepreneurship

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Government Brings PCs to Poor

Excerpts: Plans by governments to help make PCs cheaper for their citizens can help drive market penetration around the globe, but community-shared computers may be best for the world?s poorest regions, analysts said Wednesday. A recent Gartner report said that thanks in part to affordability programs, PC installations in emerging markets could reach 1.1 billion by 2015, representing an increase of 850 million, or 327 percent, from 260 million in 2005. That would mean market penetra...

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Red Herring (link opens in a new window)

Channeling the Remittance Flood

Excerpts: In 2005, migrant workers in the U.S. sent $52 billion back to Latin America and the Caribbean. Now governments are working to leverage that money to promote economic development. The importance of the inflows cannot be exaggerated. Remittances to El Salvador account for 18% of gross domestic product and lately have exceeded the value of the country’s exports. Throughout Latin America, the remittances reach poor rural areas that get little development assista...

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BusinessWeek (link opens in a new window)

BASIX, a new generation rural livelihood promotion institution, has come out with two new products for the self-help groups (SHGs). One of the products is micro-credit plus capacity building product and the other a health insurance product.? The products were launched at the national conference on ?Emerging opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid ? Transforming the Indian rural economy through profitability?. ? The micro-credit product involves a loan of up to Rs one lak...

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andhra cafe.com (link opens in a new window)

CHENNAI, DEC 23: With a view to focusing on innovation and product development, some academicians, industrialists and associations have come together to form Product Development & Management Association (PDMA), India. The association, which is claimed to be a non-profit organisation, is going to be affiliated to PDMA, US. President, PDMA, US, Hamsa Thota, said the mission of PDMA India was to improve the capabilities of people engaged in the design and development of new products ...

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Financial Express (link opens in a new window)

More retailers pursuing markets at the BOP

HYDERABAD/MUMBAI: Call it a mall revolution for the masses. If an idea currently being toyed by retail giants fructifies, India?s huge middle- and lower-class population will have something to cheer. And why not? If retail stores start selling TV sets at Rs 40 per week or, for that matter, kitchen mixers at Rs 10 a week, the hoi polloi are going to be the ultimate beneficiary. For large retailers, catering to the tastes of 45- 60% of a 1.2-billion consumer market makes sou...

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DNA Money (link opens in a new window)

In Haiti, If Someone Gets Your Goat, That’s a Good Thing

Excerpts: Live Goat: $60; Live Chicken: $7; Live Turkey $28; Live Pig: $180. The barnyard animals aren’t actually out back foraging -- they’re in Haiti fattening up. But for Haitian expatriates with money earned in the U.S., animals make great gifts -- much warmer than cash -- for the folks back home. Soca says it sells about 10 goats a week. Haitian people eat goats during every festivity, says William Regis, a Soca store manager. We...

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Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Cleantech Gives Power to the Poor

Excerpts: ...serving the more than 1.6 billion people in the world that don?t have electricity or other energy services is a good business opportunity, one that traditional utilities have ignored for far too long. But to provide people in remote areas with renewable energy, utility companies have to completely change their corporate cultures and undo years of approaching problems in a particular way. Knowledge of local markets, say Mr. Rosa and other entrepreneu...

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Red Herring (link opens in a new window)