NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Comments

CIA for CareShop

Julia Tran — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:49:22 -0500

Hi Peter, thanks for the follow-up! I just sent you an email on possible next steps.

Julia

Re Paul Rigterink

Allen Hammond — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:18:11 -0500

Paul Rigterink's comment is fascinating and adds a deep insight to the potential of micro-pharmacy model. Since agriculture is still the abiding livelihood and critical to household food budgets in rural areas, simple means of improving animal husbandry can be important. His suggestion that micro-pharmacies, a pharmaceutical distribution infrastructure, could also serve to distribute veterinary medicines and animal care knowledge makes a lot of sense to me. It also shows the value of the distribution platform—that it can be leveraged to meet other needs, and that it can boost incomes as well as save lives. —Al Hammond

Really...

Franz Gastler — Wed, 14 May 2008 09:15:06 -0500

Allow me to take a stab at this one. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but really the equation is rather simple. Information is money. Where access to information is monopolized by the few (e.g., moneylenders, slumlords, intermediaries in commodity agriculture, government procurers and functionaries), the bargaining position of the 'BOP' chap is severely hindered.

Restricting his or her access to information by default or design results in what Alex Nicholls at Oxford describes here as the poverty penalty: ‘[K]ey conditions … are notably absent in rural agricultural societies in many developing countries…’--Perfect market information, Perfect access to markets and credit, Ability to switch production techniques and outputs in response to market information. (Please see Chris Beshouri's great McKinsey Quarterly article: 'A grassroots approach to emerging markets business', ITC's famous e-Choupal, and its countless imitators).
TWO EXAMPLES: 1)I'm writing to you right now from Khan Market in Delhi, having paid Rs 80 (US$8 at PPP) for a coffee in order to get internet access (electricity outages and shaky broadband infra have cut my apt connection today)--that's one example that's close to home for me.
2) I need to send $400 to the states to someone who paid for a plane ticket after my credit card was pick-pocketed at the Pushkar Camel Fair. The banks want $30 on each side for a wire transfer.. After much badgering and comments like, 'This is 2008, right?' 'You're telling me this is how Indian businesspeople transfer money?', I was finally made privy to the information that I could just buy travelers cheques for $4 (which I would then courier for free through my employer).
(*Note: this is why the "Hawala" system of transferring money--which to the uninitiated would seem like entering the narcotics trade--proliferates even today among the rich; see also Basix cell-phone transfers and many others on NextBillion).
Thought experiment: My motorcycle is at the mechanic today, so I'm traveling via autorickshaw. If you don't live in Delhi, and wanted to take a rickshaw from Navjeevan Vihar in S. Delhi to Khan Market, how much would you pay? How would you determine an anchor price? How much time would you waste bargaining? How much is that time worth? What's the aggregated cost? Would you: a) wing it, b) call a friend, c) know about the rickshaw police line staffed by a call centre to make bargaining effortless, d) check the exact km on mapmyindia.com, or e) do as I did, and having done all the rest at some previous point in time, just hop in, bark out the destination in Hindi, drop two notes at the end and ask for the exact change again in Hindi.
Information is money, the utility of which increases exponentially with lower incomes.

We sell solar panels, solar chargers and related items

Antonio Chang — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:09:00 -0500

Dear All, This is Antonio Chang from Shen-Zhi Techonology, Taiwan. We supply solar panels, solar charges and related items and SSL lightings as well. If you have any enquries, please feel free to contact with me at antonio@shen-zhi.wemew.net or antonio_42night@yahoo.com our website @ www.shen-zhi.wemew.net for more information about our products. Wish you have a good day.

I second your post, and then some.

Ellie Skeele — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:04:57 -0500

As a Nepal-based, serial social entrepreneur I'm often dumbfounded by the attitude that BoP is about a big, new market for products and services. BoP is not a market. It's people, people with little to no money. Yes, they want improved quality of life – health care, access to ICT – but they need money to buy these things. We must focus first and foremost on sources of livelihood and job creation. The rest of it feels a bit like a pyramid scheme to me. I am working to create a nettle textile industry in Nepal that has the potential to generate income for tens, possibly even hundreds of thousands of families. When we’ve accomplished this, only then will they be able to afford the goodies that money can buy, however reasonably priced they are. Right now subsistence farmers can only look and wonder. They cannot buy. I agree – show me the money!

Worth a Shot

Garden — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:29:46 -0500

It's certainly a great idea and sure would be worth the effort to try. Sure hope all goes well! Thanks for the article...

people of kashmir needs your help

Syed Nadeem — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:24:52 -0500

Dear sir Aslam-u-allikum sir i am Syed Nadeem from kashmir organizing a journey of rediscovery on the foot in a rural distict the main aim of the journey is the peace and rural development through various programes and educational awarance but i have less volunteers and less resources ie why sir plz do some thing for kashmiri poeple........... Syed nadeem HONEY BEE Network kashmir snowbernadeem@gmail.com 099906595175 01832215990

Chery Case

Grace Augustine — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:25:28 -0500

WDI has just published a teaching case on Chery Automobile, one of China's most prominent "hidden dragons" and the organization's potential entrance into the U.S. market. If anyone is interested in learning more or purchasing the case, feel free to send me an email.

Financial inclusion

samson Tatiwa — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:51:33 -0500

The Zimbabwean gvt has unveiled a new legislation to promote the access to financial services by those in rural areas previously considered to be unbankable by formal banking institutions.The new legislation seeks to lay a framework for the operation of micro-finances as conduits of funds for development.

The effects of telecommunications on the growth of SME'S

charles — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:34:46 -0500

Hi, I'm Charles and I,m working on the effects of telecommunications on the growth of small and medium scale enterprises. I'll be grateful if you can send materials on that topic. Thanks

small and medium scale enterprises in development in nigeria

kemi — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:14:51 -0500

hi,iam a final year student of olabisi onabanjo university,Ago-iwoye.i will appreciate if you can send a material on the above topic:Banking Sector and small and Medium scale Enterprises in Development in Nigeria. thanks

Granted Loan?

Laura Venuti — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:01:26 -0500

Is the loan to purchase these product granted by the MFI on the client behalf?

Follow up on the Care Shop initiative and Study

Peter Burgess — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:21:58 -0500

Dear Julia

Thank you for your comment ... comments.

I have been a critic of "studies" for as long as I can remember, not because of the study and the report and presentation, but because they so ofter served as an excuse for not doing (in the case of donors and governments ... not funding) important works that needed doing. You observe ... quite correctly that these case studies are important, but only when they are read and used. So this is your first comment ... and I would say that I am trying to make the Community Impact Accountancy (CIA) and Tr-Ac-Net a vehicle for getting active follow up on study work that is starting the ball rolling ... and needs ongoing follow up and feedback ... and indeed funding.

With regard to your second point ... bringing CIA into play with Care Shop, I would be absolutely delighted. What might be the first step in doing this?

Sincerely

Peter Burgess
www.tr-ac-net.org
peterbnyc@gmail.com

China is on the path to what

China Sourcing — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:33:59 -0500

China is on the path to what I believe will be even greater industrial success than the USA and small to medium size businesses will provide most of the jobs just as they have in the USA.

SOLAR & WIND POWERED HOUSE ...A/C & LIFT

Jun San Juan — Sat, 10 May 2008 09:40:52 -0500

Hello Friedrich/Antonio/Elmer, My name is Jun and I'm planning to put up a second story house (Ground and First level will be for a (3) door appartment for rent). The houseI plan to put up in the rooftop will incorporate passive and active solar power technology. My main concern is how to get up and down from the rooftop as my parents are quite elderly and my dad has emphysema and can not come up and down a plight of stairs. So does my mother who is elderly. Is there a lift that can be run by solar power to provide access to the rooftop? Also is there already an A/C than can run thru solar energy? I've always seen lighting/TV/and home entertainment supported by the solar technology but have not seen A/C yet. My father would need this as he has difficulty breathing on extreme hot weather. Also in Imus, Cavite(Lat 14 deg 25 min 48.29sec Long 120deg 56min 31.46sec)is it possible to incorporate a grid-intertied solar and wind power system as there are times that no wind is blowing at all except for frequent tropical monsoons. Can a wind turbine withstand Class5 typhoon wind gusts of up to 210-230 kph? And finally,do you have a passive solar house design that can maximize the green house effect in cooling the house?Do you have a house design that can maximize sunlight to illuminate the house but not increase indoor temperatures? What kind of window glass do you have that can work together with the technology but not dissipate cool gains in house temperature?This will lessen the use of A/C in the long summer and maintain heat in the monsoon season. How much do you think it will cost to put the system up that can handle (15) 40Watts fluorescent bulbs, a washing machine if the whole floor area is around 4,670 sq. ft.? (I intend to maximize the area to include an enclosed garden/solarium)