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The Economic Case for Wiping Out Ebola
On Aug. 22, the World Health Organization announced a draft strategy to combat the West African Ebola outbreak over the next six to nine months. That’s a sign that the global health body isn’t optimistic about a rapid end to an epidemic that has killed around 1,300 people so far. An extended outbreak of such a feared disease would have mounting economic costs.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NexThought Monday – The Affordable Housing Puzzle: Three pilot projects in India aim to assemble the pieces –customers, financing and scale
Can the low-cost or affordable housing segment business in fact be profitable, and more importantly, scalable? asks housing developer and researcher Dhaval Monani. He points to new pilot projects that show promise in delivering safe, very low-cost homes that come with a profit for developers.
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Tata Group donates $15.5M to IIT Bombay to develop low-cost solutions for BoP consumers
Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Group has donated $15.5 million (Rs 95 crore) to IIT Bombay (IIT-B) to setup a virtual centre, which would focus on developing low-cost technologies for the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) consumers, says a report in The Economic Times, quoting IIT-B director Devang V Khakhar.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Humans give malaria to mosquitoes – we need a vaccine to stop this
On Wednesday, the world marks World Mosquito Day to commemorate the 1897 discovery by British doctor Sir Ronald Ross that malaria in people is transmitted to and from mosquitoes. Ross won a Nobel prize for his discovery, and, since then, mosquitoes have been enemy No 1 when it comes to defeating a disease that takes a life every single minute – most of them children in sub-Saharan Africa. But on this day, let’s focus on approaching malaria in a surprising new way: a vaccine to stop humans from giving malaria to mosquitoes.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Tags
- product design, research, vaccines
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A Year in the Life: The U.S. Financial Diaries Project’s groundbreaking exploration of the financial activities of low and moderate-income Americans
The U.S. Financial Diaries project collected highly detailed data on the financial activities of 250 lower-income households over the course of a year. A joint initiative of NYU’s Financial Access Initiative (FAI), CFSI and Bankable Frontier Associates, the project has begun publishing preliminary findings. We spoke with Tim Ogden, managing director of FAI, about the research.
- Categories
- Education
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It’s About Time, It’s Also About Culture: How do varying cultural perspectives about time and productivity impact social enterprises?
Andrea Trice is researching how “soft” factors such as mutual understanding and trust influence the success of a social enterprise. While it’s too early to draw conclusions, Trice notes that it’s difficult to overestimate the role of culture in shaping how each of us thinks and acts, and therefore how businesses succeed or fail.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Social Enterprise
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Stopping Disease With A Simple Innovation: New Floors
A Stanford University student re-invents an ancient earthen material--adobe--to work well in a country where dirt floors can cause death.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
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Ebola and ethics: Are rich nations doing enough to fight the outbreak?
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is a matter of justice and ethics, experts said Tuesday. This has to do with medical testing and international funding.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa