-
Finding the Line Between Technical and Political Solutions to Water Challenges
Technology can increase access to water and sanitation; other solutions seem to hinge on policy. But are the two areas distinct?
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Technology
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
- Tags
- sustainability, technology, water
-
MobiPrize: Moving Minds, Moving the Urban Poor
If you are a social entrepreneur who has an innovative and replicable solution to local and global transportation challenges, you are eligible to win the MobiPrize: US $5,000 and a trip to Rio+20 (the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, June 20-22, in Rio de Janeiro) and top-notch mentorship sessions with global experts in sectors relevant to transportation, livable and sustainable communities, business and social enterprise.
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- technology, transportation
-
Selling to the World’s Poor Offers Huge Potential
It might seem counterintuitive, but setting your sights on the world’s four billion poorest people can be remarkably lucrative. Just ask Suneet Singh Tuli. The CEO of wireless-device manufacturer DataWind Ltd. says his Montreal-based company’s revenue could soar from less than $10 million last year to more than $300 million next year, thanks to the stripped-down tablet computer it developed to sell in India: “It’s an astonishing rate of growth.”
- Categories
- Technology
-
Big Idea: Why Hands-On Regulation of Mobile Money Could Be Dangerous
There’s a very simple imperative driving the tariff structure and every other decision that determines access to mobile money: cost recovery. This is more than a cold-hearted calculation by mobile network operators’ accountants. If rural mobile money agents, who generally operate as independent contractors, cannot profit from this role, there will be no rural agents and no mobile money service.
- Categories
- Technology
-
ADB Plans to Invest $100M in Environment Fund
The Asian Development Bank is expected to invest about $100 million in a multinational fund that will be put up to boost investments in environment-related technologies and projects in developing countries like the Philippines.
- Categories
- Energy, Entrepreneurship, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
-
Now for some good news:Two books argue that the future is brighter than we think
The lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a small device with a huge potential. It can run dozens of diagnostic tests on human DNA in a few minutes. Give the device a gob of spit or a drop of blood and it will tell you whether or not you are sick without any need to send your DNA to a laboratory. In poor countries LOCs could offer diagnostics to millions who lack access to expensive laboratories. In the rich world they may curb rising medical costs.
- Categories
- Health Care, Impact Assessment, Technology
-
The Big Idea: Taking Mobile Money Forward
The excitement of mobile money has been dampened by an inability of deployments to take hold outside a handful of successful markets. Driving the enthusiasm forward is the opportunity to bridge the gap between one billion people in emerging markets who have mobile phones but no bank account. On Tuesday, McKinsey & Company released a report “Mobile money: Getting to scale in emerging markets” seeking to cut through this excitement and identify critical success factors for implementation.
- Categories
- Technology
-
Weekly Roundup – 2-26-12: Making a Better Cookstove
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves’ ‘100 by 20’ goal calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020.
Key to reaching that goal is creating one industry standard defining what constitutes a “clean” cookstove.- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- technology
Parent Organization
