Articles by William Kramer
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Monday
October 5
2009Farmers Rejoice: Exploitative Middlemen in the Spotlight
The Financial Times (US) published a full-page article October 2 entitled "To feed a need" that brought to mind research that WRI generated back in 2003 on the Indian conglomerate, ITC, and its rural engagement strategy called e-Choupal. The article and the case study document the benefits of direct market access by poor rural farmers in India.
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Monday
May 14
2007Red Hat Making BOP Play
One of my regular news feeds brought this item to my attention, and it struck me as perhaps a meaningful watershed.? Red Hat, the Linux software/middleware company, just announced last week the launch of its “Global Desktop” -- enterprise software at affordable prices.? Red Hat has...
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Friday
April 20
2007Jane Nelson on Business’ Role in Development
Jane Nelson, who wears many hats (IBLF, Kennedy School, Brookings), spoke yesterday at a meeting of the Global Poverty Roundtable at the GlobalWorks Foundation here in Washington. Jane offered a wide-ranging, yet concise summary of all of the ways business can engage in development. Jane said ...
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Tuesday
April 17
2007Grassroots Business Initiative Grows Tall
I attended an all-day workshop at the IFC yesterday on their Grassroots Business Initiative (GBI). A half dozen of the Initiative’s enterprises from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and 30 or so GBI partners also attended, along with their program staff. The meeting was conducted under...
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- Education
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- academia
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Tuesday
March 27
2007TN4B: Focus on Financial Services
The Next 4 Billion includes a whole chapter on a topic for which we were unable to present a single, real number from our analysis of household surveys. Not surprisingly, the chapter is short. So, why did we include it, if we couldn?t report any numbers? And why do we recommend it to you?...
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Monday
December 11
2006On Remittances as a Platform
Let me add my thoughts to Bal Joshi’s fine post of 12/6 and AnnaLee Saxenian’s reply of 12/8. I couldn’t agree more with most of the points made in both. The notion of remittances as a development platform is just right, in my view, and Ms. Saxenian strikes a fair balance on...
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Monday
November 27
2006Google.org Hiring BOP Staff
NB’s Chapel Hill NC correspondent, Jacob Kramer-Duffield, has sent an interesting job posting our way.? Jake, a former sometime WRI staffer, and now a PhD student at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science, keeps close tabs on the goings-on at Google.? Google.org, the...
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Monday
November 20
2006AMD Says Press Report on 50×15 Inaccurate
NextBillion has spoken with 50x15 project management, and has been told that the press report of the project’s demise is not correct. AMD representatives claim that the report was generated due to a misrepresented SEC filing. AMD says that the PIC will continue, 50x15 is still a goal, and...
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