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Lessons from microfinance, by Abheek Barua
There has recently been a flurry of articles in the business media about the success of the microfinance initiative in India. (That is pretty much why I’m writing this piece now.) The collaboration of banks and financial institutions which provide the basic funds, the microfinance institutions (MFIs) that serve as intermediaries, and the self-help groups that collectively take these loans, seem to be making a substantial impact on rural incomes and poverty. Equally imp...
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- rediff.com
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Taking Midas touch to Caribbean
Both C&W and Digicel agree that Digicel, by opening in April 2001 with extensive quality coverage throughout Jamaica, won over many rural people and communities, who for the first time had access to a telephone. These people will now probably never look for a landline, says Neita. Emigration is a big issue in Jamaica and so access to a telephone is very important. Remittances are also a major part of the economy and the creation of the Digicel network meant people in r...
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- The Irish Times
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Banks Refine Offerings to Meet Growing Business Opportunities in Africa, by Stephen Gunnion
Banks are refining their offerings to small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa, the fastest-growing segment of the business market on the continent. Governments are also pushing for banks to increase access to finance for small businesses, which have been identified as a means to fight poverty and to add momentum to economic growth. However, limited access to information and credit, poor infrastructure and outdated systems often make it difficult for banks to lend to s...
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- Business Day (Johannesburg)
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Intel sees 30% India sales rise in PC effort, by Chitra Somayaji
Intel, whose chips power 80 percent of the world’s personal computers, says its role in helping consumers buy PCs for 499 rupees, or $11.45, a month will help achieve annual sales growth in India of 30 percent a year. India as a growing emerging market is central to Intel’s strategy, Ketan Sampat, president of Intel India, said recently in an interview in Mumbai. The country’s autorickshaw drivers and farmers see the PC as giving their childre...
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- International Herald Tribune
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Global champions from emerging markets, by Jayant Sinha
Conventional wisdom holds that companies in emerging markets face daunting obstacles when trying to expand internationally. According to this view, the same factors that make them successful at home--privileged relationships and assets, high tariff walls, and a captive market of local customers--inevitably work against them abroad. So what explains the rise of the emerging world’s true global leaders, which operate diverse businesses profitably, at scale, and in a wide range of geographies?...
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- Bangkok Post
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VW considers ’people’s car’ for new markets, by James Mackintosh
Volkswagen is considering going back to its roots as the maker of Germany’s people’s car by building a ?3,000 ($3,700) vehicle for emerging markets. The carmaker, which became Europe’s largest through the success of the low-cost Beetle, set up a team to examine how to make a car for ?3,000 a year ago, insiders said. But the company has not yet decided whether the 3K Project will go ahead. The project is part of a move by developed-world...
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- Financial Times
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Coca Cola to Invest $150m in Nigeria, by Francis Ugwoke
The centerpiece of the integrated agricultural project will be a farm at Agenebode, Edo state which will grow citrus and pineapple. This is expected to be a big boost for agriculture in Nigeria as well as enhancing rural development. The investment will also be used to set up a Non Carbonated product centre(NCP) that will produce a wide range of juice concentrates and products using raw materials from the Agenebode farms. The senior adviser Mr Carl Ware recalled that Coca-Cola was the...
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- This Day (Lagos)
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Science and Technology Research, by Clive Cookson
Related to the lack of scientific innovation is the absence of a risk-taking entrepreneurial culture, which is reflected in turn in a shortage of venture capital to fund companies spun out of research laboratories or universities. Lam Kong-Peng, director of Singapore’s Biomedical Research Council, talks of the need to educate Asian investors, who tend to be more cautious than western investors. We are trying to create a new risk-taking culture of innovation and e...
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- Financial Times
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