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Solar Power’s Role in Rural India
Mention solar panels and you might think of people in richer countries installing them, so they can reduce their carbon footprint. But there are good reasons for installing solar technology which are not to do with climate change. For example, in those places where there are no lights in the dark, and no hot water, such as in many parts of the countryside in India, where the electricity grid does not reach. Selco is a social...
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- South Asia
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Banking Still Miles Away from Jalanga
Saraswati Das, 32, walks 20 km whenever she has to carry out a banking transaction. The walks have become more frequent of late because membership of the self-help group (SHG) she heads has been growing. Das lives in Jalanga, a small village in Orissa’s Bhadrak district. Government records show Jalanga in the list of areas with 100 per cent financial inclusion. She leads Sri Gobind Anchalika Sangha, a conglomerate of 32 SHGs based at Jalanga, which has a population of 3,360 an...
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- South Asia
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Tata Launches Low Cost Water Filter
India’s giant Tata Group on Monday unveiled a new low-cost water purifier, hoping to do for health what it did for motoring and provide affordable, safe drinking water for millions and cut disease. The Tata Swach _ named after the Hindi for "clean’’ _ is designed to be used in poor, rural households that have no electricity or running water, using ash from rice milling to filter out bacteria. The device, which will cost less than 1,000 rupees (21.5 dollars), ...
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- South Asia
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Mahindra Could Roll Out India’s Cheapest Tractor by 2010
In its bid to cater to bottom-of-the-pyramid farmers in the country, Mahindra FES is looking to roll out India’s cheapest tractor by next year. If Bloomberg reports are to be any indication the new low cost product could be powered by a 15-hp engine and would be available at Rs. 150,000 (about 40 per cent cheaper than other entry-level ones). India’s largest tractormaker has indicated that it aims to clock 25,000 units of the proposed model in the next four years, citin...
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- South Asia
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Adidas to Make ?1 Trainers In and For Bangladesh
The move from the company more usually associated with expensive footwear and celebrity sponsorship was inspired by Bangladesh’s Nobel prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, the pioneer of micro-loans which help the poor start their own businesses. He told the company, which has been criticised for exploitation in the developing world, that Bangladesh needed "social businesses" which would create jobs in the country. The company has now agreed it will produce shoes in Bangladesh on a non-pro...
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- South Asia
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India Financial Inclusion Fund Raises $90M Kitty
IFIF will invest in MFI, low-cost housing and companies that provide financial services to the poor. India Financial Inclusion Fund (IFIF), one of the largest funds focussed on investing in companies playing in the bottom-of-the-pyramid market, has achieved a final close of $90 million. Advised by Hyderabad-based Caspian Advisors, IFIF has raised commitments from the likes of UK’s CDC Group, Global Microfinance Equity Fund and Switzerland’s Social Investment Services.
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- South Asia
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The Henry Ford of Heart Surgery
BANGALORE -- Hair tucked into a surgical cap, eyes hidden behind thick-framed magnifying glasses, Devi Shetty leans over the sawed open chest of an 11-year-old boy, using bright blue thread to sew an artificial aorta onto his stopped heart. As Dr. Shetty pulls the thread tight with scissors, an assistant reads aloud a proposed agreement for him to build a new hospital in the Cayman Islands that would primarily serve Americans in search of lower-cost medical care. The agreement is inked ...
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- South Asia
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Back to Villages with “Reverse Innovation”
Kolkata: If you are in Gurdaspur, make sure you take a stroll down the Western Union Chowk. For nowhere else in the world would you find a street named after the world’s largest cross-border remittances company. This only proves how great is the brand recall for Western Union in this smalltown in Punjab. This also shows how big corporates have moved beyond the archetypal rural marketing tools like small unit sachets, mom-and-pop stores or partnership...
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- South Asia
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