Late last month, Dr. Nachiket Mor, Deputy Managing Director of the ICICI Bank and Chairman of the New Ventures India Steering Committee announced that his bank would be launching a 100 crore fund for green businesses in emerging markets with a focus on SMEs. 100 crore is a serious commitment, nearly $25 million USD. I thought of the significance of such a high profile vote of confidence for the green business sector when I ran across an article yesterday that I was somewhat surprised to find in the New York Times.

In the article, the Times described a trend that has been discussed and linked to and pondered thoroughly on the development-oriented blogs for awhile. Call them philanthropreneurs, social entrepreneurs, or now the "fourth sector;" a new class of non-profit, for-profit hybrid models is forming in the croplands of Costa Rica and the R&D facilities of General Electric that sees economic, social, and environmental gains as indistinguishable parts of a blended value proposition.