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FT: Mobile Phones Transform Life of India?s Poor
Before he got a mobile phone seven years ago, Vijay Navle, a small Mumbai fish trader, spent much of his time and scant income travelling on buses and trains. Every day, he would make the five-hour round trip to visit fishermen living on the Arabian Sea on the north of the city to see if they had caught any of the prawns and large fish that he sells to exporters at south Mumbai’s Sassoon Dock. "I can immediately inform my customers that there’s a big catch coming in fresh ...
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- South Asia
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One Man’s Crusade to Bring Riches to Rural Areas: Aavishkaar Social Venture Capital Fund
Aavishkaar CEO Vineet Rai has been raising the ’social entrepreneurship’ bar that will help create excellent, livelihood-generating rural enterprises, says Rajni Bakshi. Vineet Rai enjoys putting a twist in the buzz about social entrepreneurship. Since his work is one of the reasons for the excitement about such businesses, Rai is now a frequent speaker at public events. "I can’t wait for the ’social’ to be dropped" is usually his opening line. Rai’s tightr...
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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GSK, Nestle, Coca-Cola & Dabur Top Up Effort to Tap Rural Consumers
NEW DELHI: Consumer product makers such as GlaxoSmithKline, Nestle, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Godrej and Dabur ar are rushing to the bottom-of-the-pyramid market with custom-made products six years after management guru CK Prahalad said consumers with incomes less than $2 a day can be a profitable segment for marketers. Estimated at close...
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- South Asia
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Pakistan: USAID to Finance Gov’t for Livestock Uplift
KARACHI - The Sindh government has planned to set up Sindh Dairy and Meat Development Company and to initiate master plan study on livestock meat and dairy development under JICA grant during current fiscal year. This was informed at Provincial Development Working Party meeting held under the chairmanship of Additional Chief ...
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- South Asia
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Say Goodbye to Kerosene Lamps, Here’s Kiran!
Their mission is to bring light to millions of households that do not have access to electricity. Betting big on solar lighting products, Sam Goldman and his team have embarked on an enduring journey to remove darkness from the remotest corners of the world. Sam was moved by an unfortunate incident, while working as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin between 2001 and 2005, which led him to focus on this segment. "My neighbour’s son ...
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- South Asia
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As Microfinance Grows in India, So Do Its Rivals
By Ketaki Gokhale Mahabubnagar, India The practice of making tiny loans to poor people, or microfinance, was supposed to help drive traditional village moneylenders from rural India. Instead, traditional moneylenders, who typically charge high interest rates, are thriving, even in areas most heavily targeted by microfi...
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- South Asia
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India Food Prices Climb 19.95%, the Most in 11 Years
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- India’s wholesale food prices rose at the fastest pace in eleven years, making it more likely that the central bank will raise borrowing costs to curb inflation. An index of food articles compiled by the commerce ministry increased 19.95 percent in the week ended Dec. 5 from a year earlier, following a 19.05 per...
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- South Asia
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Manipal BOP Centre Receives Rs 60 Lakh for Research
The Manipal - Philips BoP (Base of Pyramid) Centre has been granted access to a fund of 90,000 Euros, thanks to the European Union sponsored Manipal Centre for European Studies that was launched a few days ago at Manipal University. BOP deals with designing technology that can help people who live at the base of the pyramid -- a strata that indicates their poverty-ridden lives.Some of the projects that have been developed under ...
- Region
- South Asia
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