NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Growing Interest: Why Banks Are Reaching Out to Rural India

In the western Indian state of Maharashtra, in the Mann Desh region, lives 39-year-old Lakshmi Shellar. She spends a typical day in the field tending to her crops; she also rears buffaloes and sells their milk in the village door to door. A widow since the age of 17, Shellar got in touch with Mann Deshi Mahila Bank, a cooperative bank in rural Maharashtra, a few years ago, where she learned the basics about banking products. Now she runs a financial literacy school by night, attended by 20 wo...

Source

Knowledge@Wharton (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

India’s Rural Inventors Drive Change

MUMBAI - Mansukh Prajapati invented a first-of-a-kind refrigerator that is made out of terracotta, works without electricity, costs US$53 and is selling in the thousands. It’s a sample of an innovation wave from rural and small-town India enriching the world with common-sense products. Anil Gupta, a professor at India’s premier business school, the Indian Ins...

Source

Asia Times Online (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Chennai Builder to Promote Affordable Apartments

CHENNAI: Owning a dream home for many a poor Chennaiite could soon become a reality with a leading builder, Khivraj Estates, all set to promote a low-cost residential project at Thiruvottriyur, 10 km from the city centre, at Rs 4 lakh per 269-sq ft studio apartment. The project will come up in an area where a 650-sq ft apartment costs at least Rs 15 lakh at present. Khivraj MD Ajit Chordia sa...

Source

Times of India (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Mobile: Silver Bullet to Target the Non-Banked

After 62 years of Independence, the informal economy dominates 80% of India and half the below-poverty-line households still have no access to any kind of financial services. This will continue, unless radical steps are taken. A starting point is the bottom-of-the-pyramid people’s need for a basic financial service, viz. mobile money transfer (MMT). While almost all wage earners carry mobiles, not all wage earners will have a bank account. The mobile is the proverbial silver bullet....

Source

Financial Express (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

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 ...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

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...

Source

Rediff (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Uncategorized

Region

South Asia

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...

Source

Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

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 ...

Source

The Nation (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia