We’ve already profiled Aavishkaar, the Indian micro venture capital fund that works with entrepreneurs whose capital needs are between $50,000 and $500,000 – too much for traditional microfinance but too small for commercial VCs. Now Aavishkaar has a counterpart in Nicaragua – Agora Partnerships, an initiative of Columbia University MBA students. BusinessWeek mentioned the group in a good article on the group last year; the MicroCapital blog reminded me of them again last month.

At the risk of repeating myself, I want to emphasize why I think Aavishkaar and Agora are great projects. First, they address a key bottleneck – entrepreneurs need more than the few thousand dollars that microfinance offers in order to effectively scale up, but often don’t have the collateral to secure a commercial loan (mesofinance). Second, both models are firmly rooted in profitable business practices – Aavishkaar is run by experienced VCs, while Agora’s consultants are graduates of a top-25 MBA program. Finally, these models aren’t charity – they generate profits for investors.

In 2001, during one of his excessively long speeches, Fidel Castro passed out at the lectern, an event which fueled serious speculation about the Cuban leader’s health. Three years later, after giving another drawn out speech, Castro tripped and fell, breaking his arm and shattering his knee cap. And last year, the C.I.A became part of the rumor mongering, reporting to Congress that Castro was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. According to the New Yorker, “Castro has mocked the report and said that, even if it were true, he would be able to stay in office—citing Pope John Paul II as his model.” Now, El Comandante, who is suffering from another bout of health complications, has temporarily ceded power to his younger brother, Raul, while he recovers from surgery. So while the murky stew of innuendo and supposition continues to brew around the fate of the octogenarian leader, several newspapers, including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Independent, have run stories on Cuba that have nothing to do with Castro and his ailing health. Ah, how refreshing!

PEOPlink is a non-profit organization that trains and equips grassroots artisan organizations all over the world to market their goods directly to customers over the Internet – thereby minimizing the impact of middlemen and maximizing return to the artisan. CatGen is a related open-source software application that allows minimally-skilled artisans to create and maintain effective online stores.