NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Danone Floats New Unit to Develop Products for Masses

French dairy firm Danone today launched a new business unit in India dedicated for developing products for the masses, as it looks to expand its presence in smaller towns and cities. The new unit, Danone BOP India will focus on development and marketing of products that will primarily target smaller towns, where disposable incomes are low. "We have launched a new business unit dedicated to base of pyramid [BOP] consumers... There have been lot of initiatives within the ...

Source

Moneycontrol.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Traveling Tellers, With Electronic Gear, Take Banking to Rural India

KOLAD, India - Time was, banks employed armies of human tellers. Later, they replaced many of them with automated teller machines. Now, India is using a hybrid of the two - the human A.T.M. - to expand banking to its vast rural population. Swati Yashwant, a 29-year-old mother of one, is part of a growing legion of roving tellers intent on providing bank accounts to the nearly 50 percent of India’s 300 million households that do not have them. Using a laptop computer, wireless modem ...

Source

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

Region

South Asia

The I-Slate: A Low-Cost Tablet for Kids in the Developing World

Over the years, computers have become an integral part of education in the developed world. But what of schools in less wealthy areas that lack access to electricity, not to mention the cash for pricey electronics? The solution may come in the form of a $50 handheld electronic tablet, dubbed the I-slate. The device, developed by the Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Empowering Farmers with Mobile-enabled Kisan Card System

A mobile-enabled kisan card system to help the agricultural community engage in cashless transactions, especially with their input providers, was launched here on Sunday to benefit farmers in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu by Pallavan Grama Bank. K.C. Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, who launched the pilot project, said there was nothing new about mobile banking. "But this is for the first time that a structured launch involving the farming community have been don...

Source

The Hindu (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Chotuwash, and More

The Godrej Group is walking the talk on ’Good and Green’, its brand campaign. If the low-cost refrigerator ChotuKool that runs on both battery and electricity created a buzz because of innovation (how much of it translated into actual sales is not known as yet), the Godrej Group is already ready for more. While ChotuKool is gearing up for national distribution through the postal system, in the pipeline are a slew of products targeted at the bottom of the pyramid. For examp...

Source

Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Health Care

Region

South Asia

Could Impact Investing Help India’s Poor?

Sorting out plastic bags collected from rubbish tips is a serious business for Virender Kumar. Sitting on a pile of plastic bags, he is busy giving directions to the labourers he employs to help him with the recycling. Once the bags are sorted, he sells them to recycling units to be melted down into plastic pellets. He makes about 20,000 rupees ($410; £262) profit every month. But he has bigger ambitions that need funding. He says that by w...

Source

BBC (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

A Conversation With Ela R. Bhatt

Ela Bhatt, a Gandhian and a lawyer who founded the Self Employed Women’s Association in Gujarat, is sometimes referred to as the mother of microfinance. She helped start Mahila Sewa Co-operative Bank in 1974, two years before Muhammad Yunus began the project that would later become ...

Source

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

Region

South Asia

Paul Polak ? Developing Products for ’The Other 90 Percent’ of Humanity

He listened first, then designed products for the world’s poorest people long before the term ’social entrepreneur’ came into use. Go spend time with your new market. Understand their needs. Do not presuppose that you know the answer. Multinationals can play a role in this. It’s about collaborating. They can contribute to the development of millions of people’s lives by offering them goods and services they need at a price they can afford. But they have ...

Source

The Christian Science Monitor (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia