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New Delhi: The Paris-based maker of electrical equipment, Schneider Electric SA, is looking to tap the growing Rs5,000 crore luminaire segment in India with its maiden venture into the LED (light emitting diode) lamps market. The launch by Schneider Electric India (SEI) will also mark the 174-year-old company's global entry into luminaires.

"One of the reasons why it would be launched here first is because it has been imagined, designed, engineered and produced here in India," said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, president and chief executive officer, Schneider Electric, who was in Delhi for the launch.

SEI is tapping the rural market first, undeterred by the initial high cost of the product and the less-than-modest success of the category in urban markets. Branded In-Diya, it will retail at prices ranging from Rs550 to Rs4,500.

Tricoire says the first thing people want when they have access to energy is lighting. "We decided to go with disruptive innovation and to use latest available technology because at the end of the day, the ratio between the function you get and cost it represents is better than the previous solutions and we have got many people working on it. This function is new, this solution is innovative, but it's also not expensive with respect to what it brings to the people," he said.

Tricoire's argument has its sceptics.

"It's an expensive technology, especially if you want to start at the bottom of the pyramid," said S. Venkataramani, vice-president, board of administration, of the Vienna-based International Commission on Illumination and former head of Lighting Business at Philips India.

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MONTERREY, Mexico, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- IGNIA Fund I, LP, the first impact investing fund in Latin America, announced today that it has invested MXN$63 million in Mexicana de Servicios para la Vivienda S.A.P.I. de C.V. ("MeXvi"), a leading provider of integral solutions for self-construction of low-income homes in rural and semi-urban settings.

"MeXvi provides the end user with accessible construction materials, design and technical assistance, so that the client can participate in the building of his or her own home to high quality standards under an affordable, versatile, fast and safe construction system," said Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui, co-founder and Managing Partner of IGNIA.

Since its inception in 2006, MeXvi has pioneered the assisted self-construction of homes in rural and semi-urban areas in over 13 states of Mexico. MeXvi is the leading housing disaster relief agent in Mexico and has constructed approximately 4,900 homes houses via its assisted self-construction program and has collaborated in the reconstruction of many devastated communities, improving the lives of approximately 25,000 individuals. MeXvi's construction system has been certified by entities such as the ONNCCE (Organismo Nacional de Normalizacion y Certificacion de la Construccion y Edificacion, S.C.) and the Catholic University of Guayaquil, Ecuador. MeXvi has also received CONAVI's (Comision Nacional de Vivienda) National Housing Award on three different occasions.

Through its investment in MeXvi, IGNIA is partnering with Grupo Empresarial Kaluz, S.A. de C.V. ("Kaluz"), a privately held and highly respected Mexican conglomerate with its main interests in the mining, petrochemical, construction materials and financial industries.

"We are excited about IGNIA's capital investment in MeXvi. IGNIA partners' track record in microfinance and in developing successful business models to serve the BoP together with Kaluz's proven history of creating value will serve as catalysts for growth. We aim to jointly develop new sales channels for MeXvi's quality products by partnering with institutions that will provide our end customers with access to credit," said Francisco del Valle Perochena, MeXvi's Chairman of the Board.

"Families at the base of pyramid typically improve their housing through self-construction, incurring long lead times and high costs to end up with low quality homes. MeXvi provides an opportunity to dramatically alter the quality of life of these families through access to homes that improve safety, stability and health," added Michael Chu, co-founder and Managing Director of IGNIA. "We are enthusiastic about the potential for MeXvi to generate high financial returns that will make possible extraordinary social impact."

IGNIA Fund I, LP is an impact investing venture capital fund that focuses on high growth businesses in Mexico and throughout Latin America. By providing effective responses to the enormously underserved needs of the low-income population, IGNIA empowers entrepreneurship and generates social impact at the Base of the Pyramid while creating attractive financial returns for its investors. IGNIA invests approximately US$2 - $10 million per company over the life of an investment.

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Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, Thursday launched In-Diya, an energy-efficient LED based Lighting System, to provide lighting to people living with no or unreliable electricity in India.

In-Diya is a specially designed LED based lighting system that can operate on main supply and/or solar, and provides backup ranging from 8 - 15 hours for indoor applications, said the company.

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, President & CEO, Schneider Electric, said, "In-Diya earmarks a new phase for our continuing sustainable development programme BipBop. This innovative offer will play a key role in providing access to reliable lighting to 500 million people, thereby enabling them to take part in the inclusive growth story of India."

"In-Diya is an innovation by our engineers with the Indian R&D centre and we intend to take this offer to many parts of the world," he added.

In-Diya LED based Lighting System is available in nine different variants.

The basic model with 45 LEDs is available for Rs 550. It is powered by an external chargeable battery which can be rented from a battery charging station managed by a local entrepreneur.

The high-end variant is a 90 LED Solar Home Lighting System which is compatible with the electrical grid and is priced at Rs. 4500.

Bernard Golstein, Director Marketing & Alliances, Schneider Electric India, said, "In-Diya is the only available LED-based Lighting System which can fully illuminate a typical Indian rural house and provide 8 to 15 hours backup. Our unique R&D and manufacturing capabilities have been utilized to offer a high-quality product at an affordable price".

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The argument for the development of the private health sector in Africa could not have been more strongly made than at a recent international conference held in Accra under the aegis of the World Bank Group. 

Featuring diverse success stories on health care financing and insurance from Ghana, Kenya and Mali, it was perhaps the story of the exploits of the Malian Association of Rural Medical Practitioners that most caught the imagination of participants and positioned an entrepreneurial private sector as possible solutions to access to healthcare. Shortages in the numbers of health professionals have also often been aggravated by inequitable distribution. The underlying reasons were most succinctly made by Dr. Khama Rogo former President of the Kenyan Medical Association and now with the World Bank Group. 

Although acute shortages in health personnel have been observed, it is becoming increasingly indisputable that many African governments are unable or will be unable to adequately fund the huge wage bill that is anticipated should all these qualifying health professionals be employed in the public sector. The phenomenon was cited in Kenya for example where although the State could certainly do with more doctors, securing employment for all qualified doctors was increasingly becoming challenging due to budgetary limitations. As a result, some newly qualified doctors or housemen realizing the housemanship as a part of training have begun offering their services for free in order to be signed off for full certification. Similar scenarios have been reported in Nigeria. 

In Ghana, Ministry of Health estimates put the number of doctors in 2007 at 2, 026 and yet if the West African state were to achieve prevailing doctor: patient ratios of 1: 1000 in some middle income countries by 2025 by which time its population is expected to hit 32 million, it would require not less than 32, 000 doctors. Twice this number of nurses would be required also if the estimates contained in the 2006 UN World Population Prospects are anything to go by. Assuming that governments were able to fund the training of all these doctors, is it safe to also assume the state's ability to employ all these doctors? The clarion call for governments, doctors and other major stakeholders to embrace a new era of entrepreneurial driven health agenda could not therefore have been made more loudly. While this should not be seen purely as a commercialization of the health needs of the people, it should be positioned within a framework that ensures the availability of such health services to the less privileged and underserved areas and this the Malians seem to have done brilliantly.

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MicroVest Capital Management, LLC closed MicroVest II, LP, a private equity fund targeting microfinance institutions worldwide. The fund, which closed with $60 million in commitments, will serve as a capital intermediary between investors and financial institutions that serve the working poor. J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. acted as a placement agent, and one of its affiliates was a lead investor. In addition to J.P. Morgan, lead investors include the International Finance Corporation, CARE USA, Kinnevick New Ventures AB, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Christian Super Pyt, Ltd, and Mennonite Economic Development Associates.

Press release:
MicroVest Capital Management, LLC is pleased to announce the closing of MicroVest II, LP, a private equity fund targeting top-tier microfinance institutions worldwide. The fund will serve as a capital intermediary between investors and financial institutions that serve the working poor.

The fund closed with $60 million in commitments in December 2009. J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. acted as a placement agent, and one of its affiliates was a lead investor. In addition to J.P. Morgan, lead investors include the International Finance Corporation, CARE USA, Kinnevick New Ventures AB, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Christian Super Pyt, Ltd, and Mennonite Economic Development Associates.

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BANGALORE: It is not everyday that a young consultant at McKinsey & Co, one of the world's largest management consultancy firms, trades in a 
job at the firm's Seattle office for the rough and tumble of business in rural India. But that is just what John Howard did when he launched Duron Energy, a renewable energy companythat has just started sales of solar-powered plug and play devices for lighting and battery recharges in villages across Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. 

Elsewhere in rural Bihar, Gyanesh Pandey, chief executive officer and co-founder of Husk Power Systems, and his team of co-founders - that includes Charles Ransler, a class of 2009 alumnus of the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, and Manoj Sinha, also a Darden alumnus, who earlier led microprocessor design teams at Intel - are lighting up over 10,000 homes and small shops across three villages. Husk Power owns and operates miniature power plants generating between 35 kw and 100 kw of electricity from paddy husk that it supplies to consumers in off-grid villages. 

The start-up is expected to raise a fresh round of venture capital this month to scale up operations to more than 60 villages and to set up 50 plants to generate electricity from the current level of 22 plants by May 2010. "We have an open-source model of operations and can very quickly replicate across multiple locations," says Mr Pandey, an electrical engineer from IIT Varanasi, who envisages Husk Power Systems rolling out services akin to a cell phone company. 

India is emerging as a laboratory for innovations in the alternative energy space with entrepreneurs and investors looking to build innovative solutions to address a power-starved economy. This is happening at a time when globally investments in clean tech are losing their luster. Investors are shying away, while entrepreneurs don't seem so gung-ho anymore. 

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A regional front-runner in microfinance legislation, Syria is still struggling to find a sustainable model to finance its rural poor. Currently, NGOs geared toward poverty alleviation dominate Syria's microcredit market, but further expansion of their role is inhibited by outdated government regulation. The entry of more private players is needed to increase market competition and efficiency, which will in turn help the microfinance network to realize its social goals.

While the government has done much to liberalize the financial sector since 2001, Syria remains under-banked and its financial services are limited. Private commercial banks are slowly expanding, having distributed $6.4 billion (LE 34.8 billion) in credit in 2008. However, most of that is oriented towards high-income clients and small and medium enterprises, leaving the many people lower on the economic scale out in the cold.

In particular, those subsisting on agriculture have suffered in recent years due to drought and other climate problems. The UN estimates that 803,000 Syrian farmers have lost their livelihoods since 2006.

Microfinance in Syria came to prominence as the banking sector opened up, in the form of the Fund for Integrated Rural Development of Syria (FIRDOS), an initiative by the first lady Asma Al Assad. The modest success of this lending venture, which operated a multi-million dollar portfolio, and those that followed, enabled Syria to reach an unprecedented milestone: Law No. 15, governing microfinance, was passed in 2007.

"Syria was the first country in the Arab world to issue specific legislation dedicated to the area of microfinance," says Adib Mayaleh, Governor of the Central Bank of Syria. "Yemen has recently approached us for help in this area, which shows that our standards are held in high regard."

Law No. 15 established a licensing process for social financial banking institutions (SFBIs), defined as those that, "help families create opportunities for owning and increasing the accumulation of assets." This does not imply that all SFBIs must be charitable by nature. On the contrary, the legislation specifically paves the way for profit-making businesses to legally disperse microloans. Despite this, Syria's microfinance market has been dominated by non-profit organizations that are not permitted to charge an interest rate of more than 9%.

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Bangalore: Gunjan Kumar's business proposition is simple. The 28-year-old buys traditional art and craft products from artisans in villages and sells these in metro cities.

Kumar started Amethia Apparelz and Co. in Patna 18 months ago with Rs6 lakh. In its first year, the firm earned Rs33 lakh in revenue and expects to end fiscal year 2010 with Rs1.65 crore.

In another part of the country, Nafisa Radiatorwala's start-up, Nature's Glow, is clocking 10 times the revenue it made two years ago. The Vadodara-based firm in Gujarat exports herbal beauty and treatment products to the US, UK, and the United Arab Emirates, and hopes to end 2009-10 with revenue of Rs5 crore.

Kumar and Radiatorwala are among several profit-making entrepreneurs in India's small cities and towns keen to attract venture capital (VC) investment as they look to expand.

Deal contribution from smaller cities and towns increased to about 15% in the previous year from below 5% earlier, according to estimates by four investorsMint spoke with, but not many start-ups from these regions have been able to raise capital from VC funds.

"Investors like glamorous business models," Kumar says in crisp Hindi. "Ours is a very bottom-of-the-pyramid model but a highly profitable business. Our products are sold from four times to 10 times of their production cost."

Traditional crafts made for Rs200 by an artisan in a village in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh could fetch as much as Rs1,500 in Bangalore or New Delhi, he says.

Kumar is looking for VC funding to open 10 ethnic-wear stores across the country in a year—he will open his first store in Patna this week and another in Bangalore in March. He also wants to export Madhubani paintings (traditional paintings from Bihar’s Mithila region) to the US and Europe.

Investors say reaching out to these firms poses several challenges.

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if;">When Sudhir Dixit returned home to head Hewlett-Packard Labs India in 2009, he was given a clear brief: Innovate for the next billion customers. His research is focused on how to meet the needs of non-tech savvy users like shopkeepers - can the keyboard and mouse be done away with, can they use the computer just by touching its screen (like in an ATM), speaking to it, gazing at it or waving their hand? ''The idea is to make it as natural as talking on the phone or watching TV,'' said Dixit.

Dixit is in good company. Multinationals have graduated from captive units that did low-end work to cutting-edge research in India. Companies like Google, Microsoft, GE Healthcare and Siemens have begun to use India to design and develop products, especially for emerging markets like India.

GE thus has developed an electro-cardiogram (ECG) that costs a third of conventional ECG machines. It now sells a baby warmer, used to keep babies warm after birth, at one-tenth of what this machine used to cost earlier. Microsoft, which began with 20 people, today employs 1,500 people at its Indian R&D centre. Work on its key projects, like its search engine Bing and the upcoming Windows 7 operating system, was done in India. India is SAP's largest R&D centre outside Germany and employs 4,200 people. Half of the global development of SAP's customer relationship management software such as CRM 7.0 was done in India.

Bangalore was Google's first R&D centre outside the US. Google Map Maker, a global product which allows users to add or edit features such as roads, businesses, parks, schools, apartment buildings and localities, was developed by its engineers in India. News Archive Search, which helps users search archives for events, people or news, too was developed in India.

It has been a long journey. In the early 1980s, multinationals set up R&D units in India to make use of the low costs and huge talent pool. In 1983, Texas Instruments became the first global company to set up a R&D centre in India. In the last 25 years, the captives have matured, acquired competence to develop products for the global marketplace and are being used for innovation and to access new markets.

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The networking power of Davos writ large: David Din, a Luxembourg-based technology entrepreneur, took his small company global over a simple breakfast at the World Economic Forum on Jan. 28.

Din, one of 26 entrepreneurs named by the Forum as 2010 Technology Pioneers, is behindEpuramat, a company that promises to revolutionize waste water treatment around the world-helping the United Nations meet its goal to give 2 billion additional people access to clean water and sanitary facilities in the coming years.

Epuramat's "Extreme Separator" technology efficiently sucks out solids from wastewater in one treatment step, eliminating the need for membrane or biological filtration. Epuramat plants cost 20% to 50% less than traditional waste treatment plants, are 90% smaller, and use far less energy, helping more water to be cost-effectively recycled for drinking-potentially a big boost for areas lacking clean or plentiful water.

To date, Epuramat, which was founded in 2005, has sold just five of its portable plants-two in California and three in Europe. Winning a place as a 2010 tech pioneer earned Din a golden ticket to Davos, the invitation-only exclusive event where 2,500 of the world's movers and shakers meet once a year, and helped catapult the company onto the world stage.

On Jan. 28, Din, a former analyst at UBS who gave up a comfortable living to bet the farm on a technology he believes in, was invited to a breakfast session with other tech pioneers and a group of social entrepreneurs.

The intersection of social action and technology is a powerful combination. The challenge during the breakfast session (which I moderated) was to find specific ways that the two groups might work together. Din came away a winner: During the two-hour workshop he struck no less than four potential business contacts that could help him branch out into South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Fernando Nilo, founder of Recycla Chile, a recycler of electronic equipment, told Din he is interested in becoming Epuramat's local distributor. David Kuria, from Ecotact, a Kenyan social enterprise specializing in sanitation, says he is interested in exploring ways Epuramat's technology could help solve Kenya's sanitation problems. Ecotact builds "toilet malls" in places where cities cannot keep up with rapid pace of urbanization. Space is at a premium in cities, so Epuramat's small plants are ideal for transforming the sewage from the toilet malls into water that could be used for irrigation or treated further for drinking water.

Helmy Abouleish, founder of Sekem, the first company in Egypt to introduce bio-dynamic farming methods, said he would like to examine ways to use Epuramat's technology to build out efficient, green communities in Egypt.

Iftekhar Enayetullah, head of Waste Concern, a Bangladesh-based company that recycles 40 tons of organic waste daily and turns it into fertilizer, said he will send lab results of waste water generated in its composting plants to Epuramat to explore the possibility of recycling its waste water. If the system proves as efficient as promised, he says he will buy one of the waste water treatment plants from Din.

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