NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Rich Pickings

MENTION microfinance in Asia and thoughts usually turn to India, which is struggling to regulate the industry, and Bangladesh, where Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank, has been turfed out of his job. Indonesia offers a brighter picture. There, a range of lenders is successfully funnelling credit to its entrepreneurial poor. They include Bank Rakyat Indonesia, a state-owned behemoth that had a whopping $7.4 billion in microloans outstanding in September and ...

Source

The Economist (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Generating the Unlikeliest of Heroes

DOHA, QATAR - Persuading the Indian immigration authorities to grant entry visas to illiterate African grandmothers who claim to be trainee solar engineers is no easy task. Yet, Sanjit Bunker Roy, an Indian educator, has, since 2005, succeeded in bringing 140 such women to the Barefoot College, a school he founded...

Source

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

Region

South Asia

Investing in Agriculture Key to Ending Extreme Rural Poverty in South Asia ? UN

South Asia continues to have the largest concentrations of poor rural populations despite the fact that the wider Asia-Pacific region has made major strides in combating poverty, a United Nations agency said today, stressing that agriculture is key to poverty alleviation. The study by the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), entitled Agriculture - Pathways to Prosperity in Asia and the Pacific , shows that rural poverty rates have dropped only slightly in t...

Source

UN News Centre (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Danone Looks at Measured Expansion In Country

French dairy firm Danone is chalking out a measured expansion plan in India. The corporation, which reported $20 billion in global revenues for 2010, has been in India for a little over a year and has introduced yogurt, dahi (curd) and smoothie product range in Pune and Mumbai. It is now focusing on Hyderabad. Danone Dairy India Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sudip Dasgupta told Business Standard they were expanding in a measured way as they wanted to get the backend cold-chain distribut...

Source

Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

’Financial Inclusion a Must for Poverty Alleviation’

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India has said concerns on the front of income distribution and poverty alleviation cannot be met without full-scale expansion of banking and other financial services. RBI deputy governor KC Chakrabarty said while the Indian growth story was impressive, there were concerns on issues like income distribution and poverty alleviation , where lot remained to be done. Mr Chakrabarty pointed out that India ranks 119th among 169 countries on the 2010 Human D...

Source

The Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Serving the Bottom of the Pyramid

Business is brisk for Dheeraj Singh, a small kirana shop owner in Delhi’s Govindpuri area. He stocks a host of brands offered by the Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in categories such as hair oil, shampoo, biscuit, fairness cream and tea, among many others. But he offers most of these products in their smallest pack sizes costing between Rs1 and Rs10. This just works fine for Savitri, a regular customer at the store employed as domestic staff in a flat nearby. She...

Source

livemint.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Tags

poverty alleviation

USAID to Invest $30m in Nepal

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday (March 29) launched its Nepal Economic, Agriculture and Trade (NEAT) project for improving business competitiveness, food security and microfinance to foster economic growth of the country. The two-and-a-half-year project will help the private sector in improving the country’s foundations for rapid, sustained and inclusive private sector-led economic growth, the USAID said organising an interaction here. NEAT ...

Source

Asia News Network (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Poor Still Benefit When Microcredit Reaps Megaprofits

IS it right to profit from the poor? This question has sparked a civil war in the business of microcredit - making small loans to the poor in developing countries - and badly tarnished the image of what had been seen as a rare success story in the fight against global poverty. Who wins this battle about how best to deliver aid could determine whether hundreds of millions of people get the chance to escape abject poverty. The controversy began last year when reports emerged that farmers ...

Source

The Australian (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia