NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Microcredit Pioneer in Grameen Bank Survival Battle

It is not the usual routine for Professor Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace laureate and a pioneer of microcredit. Instead of travelling the world advising governments on microcredit, Mr Yunus has been confined to his native Bangladesh fighting court battles. Mr Yunus founded the microcredit Grameen Bank in 1983. He now finds himself in the uncomfortable situation of fighting to save his job. On Tuesday, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court is set to reo...

Source

BBC News (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Growth as Tool to Alleviate Poverty

The Prime Minister’s focus on double-digit growth is not due to any ’growth mania’. It is for the benefit of the poor. At a recent function for police officers, the Prime Minister observed: "If we don’t control Naxalism, we have to say goodbye to our country’s ambition to sustain a growth rate of 10 to 11 per cent per annum." Some commentators (like Prof Prabhat Patnaik of JNU) interpret this (in a newspaper piece) as the Prime Minister prioritising 10-11 per c...

Source

The Hindu Business Line (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Afghan Dressmaker Helps Inspire Other Start-ups

Journalist Gayle Tzemach Lemmon arrived in Afghanistan in 2005. She had come to Kabul on an assignment to write an article for the Financial Times about local women entrepreneurs who emerged when the Taliban took control of the city in 1996. Lemmon was not a novice at covering women in war zones. She had worked in Bosnia and Rwanda reporting on female entrepreneurs in post-conflict counties. But in Afghanistan, Lemmon was "a first-timer." When she met her interview subject, she re...

Source

PBS Newshour (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Consumer Goods to Consumer Centricity: Not Easy to Navigate for HUL

It’s lunchtime at the sprawling campus - the walk through inside the corporate nerve centre of India’s largest FMCG Company - the Rs17700 crore turnover (March ended 2010) HUL. The campus is crowded with employees taking their post prandial walk, some using WiFi to work out of their work stations and some milling around the branded food court from the company stable. So there’s Swirl Parlour, Bru Cafes and the latest addition Knorr Food Kiosk. It’s at the Knorr Fo...

Source

The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Tags

poverty alleviation

Yunus Says Borrowers Are Core of Grameen Bank

Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is facing challenging times. On March 2, Bangladesh’s central bank ruled that he must step down as managing director of Grameen Bank, the institution he founded in the 1970s to get small loans to poor farmers without collateral. The success of Grameen won Mr. Yunus international acclaim and helped spawn the global microfinance industry. The bank and Mr. Yunus shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. But Mr. Yunus is facing pressure at home. ...

Source

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

Region

South Asia

Gates Foundation: $23 Million for Health Diagnostics in Bihar

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $23 million to help improve the diagnosis and treatment of diarrhea, tuberculosis, kala azar and childhood pneumonia in the Indian state of Bihar. The funding will go toward an international non-governmental health organization that will lead an initiative to improve prescription practices across Bihar’s private health sect...

Source

Devex News (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Bangladesh Ready to Compromise on Yunus Dispute

Bangladesh says it is ready to compromise with Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus, who was dismissed as chief of the microfinance bank he founded. The country’s finance ministry said Wednesday the government is ready to find a solution to the issue and that Yunus must come forward to help resolve the matter. The statement comes a day after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake expressed concern about the effect of Yunus’ departure from Grameen Bank on civil s...

Source

VoANews.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Tata Signs up MIT Energy Guru for Power from Water

Bangalore: In the first such effort, Tata group chairman Ratan Tata has signed on a leading scientist from the globally renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to commercialize cutting-edge research that promises to produce cheap power from water. Daniel Nocera, a professor of chemistry and energy, and his group of elite scientists at MIT attracted attention from Tata when he heard they had found a way towards one of science’s holy grails-to imitate photosynthesis, the ...

Source

livemint.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia