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The NextBillion.net team and the World Resources Institute are pleased to introduce Ella Delio as a Senior Associate working with the Markets and Enterprise program (which includes NextBillion.net).

Ella has 8 years of relevant experience in enterprise and private sector development. Originally from the Philippines, Ella worked for Procter and Gamble and ran or helped run two businesses. When she came to the U.S., Ella obtained her MBA degree from the Harvard Business School and Masters in Public Administration degree from the Kennedy School of Government. During this time, she had internships at the Philippine Department of Trade & Industry and Booz Allen Hamilton.

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I have a chronic habit of seeking out cool people. Can’t help it; it’s just what I do. A few months ago, I asked one of my friends, a Stanford Graduate School of Business grad, to e-introduce me to a then second year student. We exchanged ideas and information, a process that always makes me happy. Imagine my delight (pun intended) when the aforementioned student e-introduced me to two of his classmates, Sam Goldman and Ned Tozun, founders of d.light design. I was absolutely tickled, and you’ll understand why shortly.

d.light’s mission is to “develop and commercialize sustainable lighting and power solutions for underserved rural markets in areas without access to electricity.” The d.light team hopes to supplant the use of kerosene and candles, which are “expensive, inefficient, dangerous, low-quality sources of light.” (Source: http://www.dlightdesign.com/vision.html)

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That TED Global came and went without so much as a whisper here on NextBillion.net is a shame.  The curator, Emeka Okafor, is a friend and also the mind behind Timbuktu Chronicles, a must-read for those of us in the BOP set.  How could I miss reporting on his major conference?

Thankfully, others are there to pick up the slack.  Most notable is Ethan Zuckerman - where doesn't this guy go? - whose insightful posts give us blow-by-blow reporting on who says what and what it all means.  Check out My Heart's in Accra and browse through the archives from last week and the week before, you'll learn more than you can imagine.

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For those of you who have been watching the site, you know that comments were temporarily disabled on the site last week because of a spam attack. Commenting is back on now for everyone, so please comment away... We'll be keeping an eye on the site to help keep it this way. Happy commenting!

Ravi Goel's and Marukh Bulsara's Indian eco-tourism venture exposes major corporate clients to the benefits of sustainable living while supporting local communities with employment and local investment.

by Rajya Karipineni - New Ventures India

Ravi Goel stresses that he and his colleague, Mahrukh Bulsara, have come a long way since their first difficult experience attempting to obtain a loan for their eco-tourism business. The two entrepreneurs had the necessary accounting information and collateral in place for their company, EcoMantra Nature Awareness and Travel, yet they found that banks were reluctant to provide finance for small enterprises regardless of their financial stability. Eco-tourism entrepreneurs still face many barriers to entry and growth in India, but Ravi and Marukh have worked tirelessly to build EcoMantra’s reputation as a superior eco-tourism destination. They believe strongly in the power of eco-tourism to spread sustainability values and they have become pioneers in innovative initiatives for the sector. 

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Via Pablo Halkyard, who many will recognize as a co-founder of PSD Blog. He's now up at NYU doing a master's degree. In any case, Pablo sent me an e-mail regarding the following event...if you're in NYC, check it out:

The Microfinance Club of New York in cooperation with The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office New York presents:

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This is a rare case of an administrative message on NextBillion.net. We wanted to let everyone know that commenting is temporarily disabled for anonymous users because of a large influx of spam on the site. We will be working hard to find a solution so that commenting can be brought back online and conversations can continue. In the meantime, please contact us with any questions that you might have.

This came across my desk via Virginia Barreiro, director of New Ventures.  For your Tuesday afternoon (EDT) pleasure.

The role of the private sector in promoting education is a topic of considerable interest and discussion.

Atanu Dey's series of blog posts on The Indian Education System make for good reading.

An extract:

"Imagine for a bit what it would be like if education were provided by private sector firms. Can it be done? Would a socially optimal amount, variety, and quality of education be provided? Would there be market failures? If so, how can those market failures be corrected? Can one devise mechanisms to correct those failures?

The answer to whether the private sector can provide education is clearly ‘yes’ because around the world for a very long time private firms have provided education very successfully. Both private sector for-profit and not-for-profit business models exist. Education, at some level of description, is a service like any of a very large variety of goods and services provided very efficiently by the market. The generalization that markets work holds quite meaningfully in the specific case of education broadly."

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At the same time as plastic cutlery waste increases every year, the traditional Indian Jowar crop has been declining, leaving farmers to search for unsustainable alternatives. BK's solution to both: edible cutlery.

by Rajya Karipineni - New Ventures India

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