NextBillion - A WDI Publication

How NextDrop is Using Cell Phones, Crowdsourcing to Get Water to the Thirsty

In many cities in developing countries, residents have piped water supplies. But there’s a catch: the water is only available through the pipes for a few hours at a time, and people have no way of knowing when that will be. As a result, residents (mostly women and the poor) spend their days just waiting for the water to arrive. NextDrop , one of the winners of the Knigh...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Milk Storage Unit Uses Sun to Keep Cool

Got chilled milk? That’s the unofficial slogan for Boston-based Promethean Power Systems, a company that this month received a grant from the National Science Foundation to further develop its innovative milk refrigeration system. Promethean’s target market is India, though it plans to expand to Africa and Latin America as soon as February. India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of milk; the country is home to some 70 million farmers who contribute to a mul...

Source

Boston.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Will Indian IT Companies’ Business Model Become Stagnant?

BANGALORE: Indian IT companies, which rode the outsourcing wave to become large corporations, may lag a bit while becoming sustainable corporations that create fortune "with" the bottom of the pyramid, says management guru Stuart L Hart . The American academic who was in town recently, says: "From what I can see, there is a little bit of self-satisfaction and comfort with the current model. Maybe they are getting stuck in the outsourcing model like that is the endgame. But it is...

Source

The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Education

Region

South Asia

MFIs See Sharp Erosion in Loans, Net Worth

Mumbai: Afew large microfinance institutions (MFIs) are trying to cope with a funding squeeze that followed a crisis after Andhra Pradesh introduced a stringent law governing microlenders nearly eight months ago, which saw assets of some MFIs drop by at least one-fourth. Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance Ltd (BSFL), for instance, is focusing on fee income to tide over the crisis, and SKS Microfinance Ltd plans to diversify its business and start offering gold loans in a big way. Most MFI...

Source

livemint.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Plans Don’t Work for Urban Poor?

VARANASI: Though there are provisions for poverty alleviation in urban areas, a number of urban poor and slum dwellers in Varanasi are bound to face financial hardships. However, officials claim things are improving with the implementation of programmes. "It is difficult to manage household expenses for people like us," said Gopal, a daily wager. Like him, there are a number of people living mostly in slum...

Source

The Times of India (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Eko: The Mobile Bank for Low Income Customers

Eko is a low cost mobile banking solution for people in the low income groups. It is just the right service for India, where the workforce is 540 million-strong. Only about six per cent of these workers are employed in the organized sectors. The low cost mobile banking company Eko aims to serve the unorganized segments of our economy. Eko was founded in 2009 with the aim to reduce the cost of financial transactions. The reason? The bigger banks used to target only higher income group cu...

Source

The Mobile Indian (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Bottom of the Pyramid Is Not Only About Low-cost Products, Says Stuart Hart

BANGALORE: It has been a little more than a decade since the late management guru C K Prahlad and Cornell professor Stuart Hart introduced the concept of the fortune at the bottom the pyramid. It deals with how companies can profitably target the huge mass of consumers at the low-income and below the poverty line (BPL) level. Hart now admits t...

Source

The Times of India (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

AP Govt Sends Proposal for Microfinance NBFC to Centre

The Andhra Pradesh government has sent proposals to the Centre to start a non-banking financial institution to meet microfinance requirements of the state’s poor people, a senior state official said today. The proposed non-banking finance company (NBFC) will charge an interest of 15% against 24 to 26% being charged by private MFIs in the state, Reddy Subrahmanyam, principal secretary, rural development said. "The proposals have been sent and we are awaiting the Centre’s no...

Source

Moneycontrol.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia