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Economic Crisis Forces Businesses to Focus on the Poor
In India, the economic crisis may actually be good news. During the salad days of the past decade, India’s entrepreneurs grew fat selling gas guzzlers and palatial homes to the country’s new rich, while ignoring the needs of the biggest segment of Indian consumers: the poor. It was an expatriate Indian, the University of Michigan’s C.K. Prahalad, who first posited that there were millions to be made selling to the "bottom of the pyramid." Now that’s start...
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- South Asia
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Indian Regulations Stifling for Social Investing
Harold Rosen founded the Grassroots Business Initiative (GBI) of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation in 2004. In 2008, GBI spun off into the non-profit Grassroots Business Fund, which, among other things, looks at funding socially relevant projects in India. Rosen spoke to Atul Sethi about the potential of social enterprise funding in India: What makes you want to invest in India? India’s world-class, cost-effective skilled labour force canno...
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- South Asia
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Aavishkar Goodwell Invests in Early Stage Microfinance
SMF will be the first MFI in India to secure equity funding prior to the commencement of its ops. Pune based Suryoday Microfinance (SMF), a micro finance company led by three former bankers, has received an equity investment of Rs 45 million from Aavishkaar Goodwell India Microfinance Development Company. An interesting point to note is that this would be the first MFI in India to secure equity funding from an institutional investor prior to the commencement of its oper...
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- South Asia
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From Chulhas to Defibrillators: Can Philips India Be All Things to All People?
Philips India was once unchallenged in India’s lighting and electronics arena. With more than 75 years in the country, the nearly wholly owned subsidiary of the Dutch multinational Royal Philips Electronics boasts impeccable parentage. But competition eroded its vaunted position, and today Philips has redefined itself as a "health and well-being company." "Through consumer insight, we understood that people perceive health and well-being as a combination of superior lifestyle and av...
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- South Asia
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Real Economic Development in Afghanistan
A successful woman-run rug business has been operating for the last five years in Afghanistan. Arzu Rugs currently employs 600 people and provides direct economic support to almost four times that many. Arzu means “hope” in Dari. In addition to the well-paying jobs created by the rug-weaving work, the company funnels its profits back to the community in the form of medical care, education, and social services that touch the lives of an estimated 100,000 Afghans. Arzu was cre...
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- South Asia
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World’s Cheapest Car Hits Indian Streets
by Phil Hazlewood The world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano, hit the streets on Friday, as the first customer got the keys to a vehicle that its makers hope will transform travel for millions of Indians. Ashok Raghunath Vichare took delivery of a lunar silver Nano LX model, one of three cars handed over in person by Tata Motors boss Ratan Tata at a city dealership. The 59-year-old customs official from Mumbai said only that he was "very happy" to have got his hands...
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- South Asia
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Are Businesses Without Benefactors Better?
Usually a hot startup bankrolled by eager investors doesn’t care much about its burn rate. In the case of Envirofit, though, that was the obsession from the beginning. The company sells cookstoves to "bottom of the pyramid" customers in India and the Philippines, and thanks to innovative engineering, they use less kerosene, burn hotter, and produce 80% less noxious fumes than the most commonly used models. So impressive is the technology that its inventor, engineer Bryan Willson, was hono...
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- South Asia
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India Inc feasts on charm
The much-awaited visit of US secretary of state Hillary Clinton got off to an early start in the commercial capital over breakfast with the doyens of India Inc. The chefs at the Taj Mahal Palace & Towers had prepared several delicacies for the power pow wow. The dishes remained untouched because there was too much food for thought. “Nobody ate breakfast. We were riveted by this charismatic lady in strawberry pink and ...
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- South Asia