The BOP universe continues to stay busy, and the multilaterals seem to be leading the pack in certain ways.

First, PSDBlog points to a CGAP press release; the Gates Foundation is granting $24 million over 4 years to scale up CGAP's mobile banking work.  From the release:

To identify innovative new approaches, CGAP will build partnerships with a wide variety of actors - from mobile network operators to banks and technology firms. The program will also invite proposals from organizations interested in experimenting with new models for reaching the poor, and will offer technical assistance and grants to offset risks and capture key lessons. CGAP will also shape an understanding of the financial sector regulation that can stimulate new approaches while protecting customers and financial providers.

Meanwhile, Courtland dropped a copy of this week's Economist on my desk today, with a sticky note on page 18 - the Executive Focus section.  The top right ad is for a Senior Program Manager to run the International Finance Corporation's new "Lighting the Bottom of the Pyramid" initiative.  From the LED web site:

(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)

We are happy to announce that Nitin Rao has joined the NextBillion.net team as a blogger and writer. Nitin was born and raised in Bangalore, India. He is studying for a B. Tech. at the National Institute of Technology - Karnataka at Surathkal, which is considered to be one of the best engineering colleges in India. He is majoring in Information Technology. This course emphasizes the managerial facets of software development - creating not just engineers who are part-time managers, but manager-engineers.

A deep interest in economics and business has been important to Nitin’s studies. Recent concepts like the "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" have awakened in him a major interest in following stories of economic progress throughout South Asia. Nitin's interest in entrepreneurship has led him, for the last two years, to attend The Entrepreneurship Summit organized at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.

He is an employee intern at Sun Microsystems as part of their Campus Ambassador initiative. This involves driving the adoption of Open Source technologies in the developer community. He is currently enjoying the leadership responsibilities of being the elected representative for his class.

Listening to Hindi music, blogging and debating are a few of Nitin's other interests.