What follows below is an excerpt from the Energy Chapter of the The Next 4 Billion report. The chapter contains two country specific case studies. The study below, on India, provides a comprehensive preview of much of the data and analysis available in the energy chapter.

India's energy story points to trends seen consistently across surveyed countries...

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My one-line review of Fast Company's March issue and its annual Fast 50 list: "It's exciting."

It's green, it's sustainable, and it has BOP written all over it, both literally and sequentially (from the Letter from the Editor, to Andrew Zolli's Business 3.0, to numbers 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 15, an interview with C.K., 24, 25, 31, 38, 41, an interview with Omidyar, and 44).

Did I say it was exciting?

It's palpable. Zolli writes a thought provoking introduction, heralding the "Eco-Innovation Revolution" and the Fast 50 that follow, "50 Profit-driven solutions for what ails the planet," reminds you just how much of this revolution is already underway - from Goliath GE (#37) to up and coming Terracom (#24).

I spent last night watching, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" with my girlfriend, and was left wanting to beat the piss out of a an auto-industry exec before working my way to an oil-industry exec (You start a bogus grassroots campaign to discourage zero emissions while 1 in 4 children in L.A. has lung lesions ...I'm sorry you deserve a re-adjustment....maybe it'll help you sleep).

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Editor's note: NextBillion staff writer Courtland Walker recently returned from a 10-day trip to Rwanda. Over the next week, he will post reflections on his trip as part of the Rwanda Journal series. This is the third post in the series; read the first two here and here.

In high-income countries, the SME sector has been estimated to contribute more than 50% to gross GDP, not to mention being the engine of new job creation and a source of as much as half of the innovation in these economies. In low-income countries, however, the contribution of the SME sector to gross GDP has been estimated at 16% and, in most African countries the SME sector has been estimated at less than 10%.

I read the above quote, over a year ago, in "Venture Capital for Development," a paper by Alan Patricof and Julie E. Sunderland.

While the growth of the SME sector is crucial to the future of developing country economies, there are tremendous difficulties inherent in fully private sector investments in smaller firms. While there are a handful of groups - namely SEAF, GroFin, and Aureos - that are operating fully private sector SME-targeted funds, many, including Patricof and Sunderland have called for the participation of the development institutions to help mitigate the risk faced by the private sector.

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Editor's note: NextBillion staff writer Courtland Walker recently returned from a 10-day trip to Rwanda. Over the next week, he will post reflections on his trip as part of the Rwanda Journal series.  This is the second post in the series; read the first here.

In reference to David's request for further explanation on, "People don't need electricity, they need jobs," what was supposed to be a short reply, was not, but hopefully it proves to be an interesting read.

In posing the hypothetical, "If I had a million dollars..." question, I was trying to frame a larger development issue that struck me during my time in Rwanda; how to prioritize investments for sustainable improvement of livelihoods based on observation of on the ground realities.

I spent most of my trip in a rural area to the east called Rwinkwavu, one of the poorest regions in the Rwanda...

Editor's note: NextBillion staff writer Courtland Walker recently returned from a 10-day trip to Rwanda. Over the next week, he will post reflections on his trip as part of the Rwanda Journal series.

The most recurrent thought during my time in Rwanda was, "What’s the first step?" I kept doing a hypothetical in my head: You have a million dollars. Do you pave roads? Do you put up more power lines? Do you put a floor in every house? A bed net? Do you buy tractors? Fertilizer? Laptops? Cell phones?

"People don't need electricity, they need jobs." That response, from my sister who has been in-country for three and a half years and seen first-hand both the education and health systems in Rwanda, has been on my mind since my return.

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With more than a few mentions on NextBillion during its development, it was nice to see LifeStraw covered in today's New York Times.

The LifeStraw sells for $3, is approximately the size of a paper towel tube (i.e. 25cm long by 29mm in diameter), and filters out 99.99% of bacteria, the main cause of water-borne diseases such as Typhoid, Cholera, Dysentery and Diarrhoea that kill 6,000 people a day.

The Laureates for the 2006 Tech Museum Awards were recently announced. The Tech Museum Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.

While this awards program is more about recognition than about stimulating further research, it is still important to bring attention to the application of technology to development problems. Not only that, but with Bill Gates headlining the event, it should garner some press for the lesser-known laureates.

There is a poignant article in today's New York Times on the alarming rate of suicides amongst India's farmers - more than 17,000 in 2003. Tracing the causes of this epidemic, the article explores a confluence of forces from moneylenders to American multinationals selling genetically modified seed. An excellent article, recommended reading and, in my opinion, an important counterbalance to our frequent praise of market driven development.

The global cell phone market recently passed 2.5 billion connections, having grown by 500 million in 12 months. A quarter of this growth is attributable to India and China. In the latter country 5 million new connections are added every month.

As a result of this staggering growth rate, of the 2.5 billion users worldwide, the majority (59%) now lives in developing countries. This is the first time in history that a telecommunications technology has more users in developing countries than in the developed world.

"I compare vaccines to water. I compare vaccines to education." -Jean R. Stephenne, President, Biologicals, GlaxoSmithKline, Belgium

"When you request 100-200 million units, you're able to influence corporate strategy."
-Professor Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman, One Laptop per Child, USA

"Knowledge is more important than aesthetics, more important than policy."
-John Restrepo, Executive Director, Parquesoft, Colombia

"What people want is for the telephone to be answered, quickly."
-Enrique Cañas, General Manager, Banco Uno, El Salvador
[on understanding the needs of financial services customers at the BOP]

"The aspiration for quality does not vary with income."
-Craig Fiebig, General Manager for Emerging Markets, Microsoft, USA

Not an hour after Tuesday's post on an apparent remittance service offered by The Home Depot, I received an email, from their Media Relations Department, in reply to my request for more information.

Here's what The Home Depot had to say:

"On May 8, 2006, The Home Depot launched a pilot program in Washington, D.C., called MiCash. It is a program offering consumers the opportunity to purchase cards that can be loaded at The Home Depot and used as debit cards, ATM cards, telephone cards for domestic or international calls and as a money transfer product to send money instantly within the U.S. or overseas. Each package purchase includes two identical cards that can be used both domestically and internationally, allowing customers the ability to give one of the cards to a family member. A government ID is required to activate the cards. The pilot will be expanded later in the month to include The Home Depot stores in the Tampa market. There are no plans for further expansion at this time."

Riding the 42 to work last week, I was surprised to see a poster advertising a remittance service offered by Home Depot; familiar orange and white logo, copy half written in English, half in Spanish.

A multi-national retailer testing the remittances waters? A lure to bring in new customers? Is the model in-store credit only? Or what about a discount if used in-store? Would it make sense for other MNCs with locations both in the U.S. and the developing world; Wal-Mart? IKEA? McDonald's?

With international remittance flows to the developing world set to top $167bn this year, a newly released report by the United Nations shows that remittance flows to the African continent, averaging US$17bn per annum between 2000 and 2003, have surpassed Foreign Direct Investment during the same period.

While official aid remains atop the list of external finance flows to Africa, worldwide remittance flows are more than double official aid, and governments, NGOs and the private sector alike are beginning to capitalize on these transfers as a driving force for growth.