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Solar power might be the star of the cleantech industry right now, but water technologies are the prot??g??s eagerly awaiting their turn in the spotlight, industry watchers said Wednesday at the Clean-Tech Investor Summit in Rancho Mirage, California. One in five people around the globe lack access to safe drinking water, said Ira Ehrenpreis, a general partner at Technology Partners, a Palo Alto, California-based venture capital firm that invests in new water technologie...
Next Cleantech Star: Water?News
Leading figures in the development debate, speaking at the meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, have pledged to build on the mountain of good will generated last year, and follow through towards the goal of eradicating poverty in Africa. According to a press release from the Forum, they agreed that top priorities for 2006 should include: getting global trade talks back on track, exposing corruption both by givers and recipients, and investing ...
World Leaders Commit to Eradicating African PovertyNews
At a time when concerns about global warming and the need for renewable energy sources are grabbing headlines the world over, it seems particularly regrettable that communities would be afflicted by the theft of solar panels. Yet, this is precisely what is happening in rural areas of Senegal, in West Africa. Just as we’re trying to improve life for rural populations in the interior of the country, evil-minded individuals are attempting to undermine the substanti...
Energy-Senegal:Theft Casts a Shadow Over Solar ProgrammesNews
The Romans named the first month of the year after the god Janus, who was depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions. This allowed him to see backward and forward at the same time and at the end of the year, the Romans imagined Janus looking back at the old year and forward to the new. In that spirit, I would like to spend this evening reflecting on 2005- the Year of Africa- and more importantly, looking forward to the challenges for 2006 and beyond. I first e...
Africa Post-Gleneagles: threats and opportunities (or “will a year of talk be followed by a year ofNews
Bernadine Dias, a Sri Lankan-born scientist based at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States, admits she wears many hats. Her main focus is robotics, but she also devotes a lot of time promoting innovative ways of using technology in poor communities. In 2004, Dias founded an initiative called TechBridgeWorld to forge collaborations between CMU and developing communities around the world, including poor neighbourhoods in the United States. Dias believe...
Learning to Listen: Technology And Poor CommunitiesNews
One of the UK’s leading businessmen says companies have a responsibility to actively support fresh efforts to improve the investment climate across the continent. However, Reuters chairman Niall FitzGerald said there was also a need to tackle the stigma of profiteering accusations which many successful companies in Africa now seemed to face. Mr FitzGerald, the former Unilever chairman, told a business audience in London that the case for business growth as the mai...
Business must take African standNews
Surinder Sud Despite a perceptible increase in the flow of rural credit from institutional sources, the share of the informal sector, notably traditional moneylenders and traders, in farmers’ outstanding debts remain as high as 43.3 per cent at the all-India level. This share is higher than the national average in several agriculturally progressive states, including Punjab, Andhra P...
Rural credit: Local lenders still rule the roostNews
K.V.Rao The New Year is bringing a lot of good news to people desirous of availing banking services. Thanks to the initiative taken by the RBI, commercial banks in India have launched ?no-frills? accounts in response to the RBI?s call for social and financial inclusion of the country?s population, at the bottom of the pyramid. The banks have now understood that it makes sound business sense to open such accounts. ?No-frills? accounts Anybody with a ?zero-bal...
RBI introduces no-frills accounts for the masses
