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We liked Rohan Mehta's dia ry-style insight into the newest form of world famous Indian entrepreneurship: a 'social business,' in this case a courier company founded by an ex-Merrill Lynch banker, employing deaf people to deliver corporate mail.

"I just got back from work. 

To do that I took a train from Churchgate and an auto rickshaw from the station to Khar (W).

I'm so Bombay now.

As you might have heard, the trains are absolute madness. I am grateful for my eager teen concert going days where I learnt the important life skill of navigating through a sea of stubborn bodies to get closer to a stage. This is exactly how you get off trains here. Throw your body weight into the crowd and squeeze through tiny gaps of passengers who stand their ground firmly. Then you have to deal with the strong current of people coming on to the train. None of this British "after you sir" attitude. It's quite a fulfilling feeling once you get off though. 

In the morning I usually go to the Churchgate office.

I get there around 10:00 and see everyone's smiling faces. They say good morning to me (a hand gesture that reassembles something like a flower opening up followed by a thumbs up.)

I am currently working for a company called Mirakle Couriers. A For-Profit social business enterprise that employs low income deaf adults to collect, sort and deliver corporate mail. Some of the big business industrial companies are our clients. We have also recently got more into delivering specialist magazine publications to their subscribers.

We have 45 deaf employees (ages 20-30), 15 girls who handle back office data entry and 30 boys who run deliveries in a designated areas.

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HYDERABAD: India's booming microfinance segment is under the scanner, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issuing a veiled warning that it could 
be taken off the priority sector lending list of banks if the industry fails to improve its governance standards. 

This was spelt out at a meeting in late January between senior RBI officials, representatives of Sa-Dhan-the association of Indian microfinance institutions (MFIs)-and some senior MFI managers from Karnataka, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. 

The RBI officials reportedly told MFI executives that the central bank was aware of the extent of benami loans being given by MFIs, the practice of writing off bad loans and sloppy corporate governance in some of the entities, all of which could have their impact years down the line. 

Total outstanding loans issued by the Indian microfinance segment stood at Rs 11,700 crore in 2009, a 13-fold increase from the Rs 897 crore it was worth in 2005. 

Many MFIs have generated big returns, often as much as 20-30%, to the promoters and private equity players, who have stepped in as financial investors, looking for an exit in about four years. For instance, Spandana, a Hyderabad-based MFI with current outstandings of Rs 3,061 crore and growing at 100%, is close to wrapping up a deal with Temasek Holdings, where the former will pick up close to a 10% stake for Rs 200 crore. 

Currently, all loans to MFIs are categorised as priority sector lending that banks have to fulfil as part of their social obligation and regulatory requirement. Losing priority sector status could snap credit lines that MFIs have with banks. 

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If you want to provide a product or service to the poor, you have to start with what they can afford and work from there.

"Whether it is America, India or Nepal, we work backwards and first think, 'What can the customer afford?'", social entrepreneur David Green said at a panel of innovators on the first day of the Tech4Society conference being held in Hyderabad this week.

Others agreed that providing much-needed products and services to the poor at an affordable price requires a rigorous rethinking of everything from design and supply to distribution and maintenance.

Smart companies reaching towards those largely ignored until now, have consistently found that there are better, cheaper ways to deliver goods and services when the end customer is at the bottom of the pyramid.

"It doesn't really cost that much to make things," if you take out all the profit margins added he said. "It's about demystifying the margin structure and distribution."

Mr. Green points to Aurolab in Tamil Nadu which has been able to slash the price of intraocular lenses, used to give people with cataracts eyesight, to only $2 from as much as $3000 by not relying on the established medical producers and suppliers. "Be in control of production and you will be in control of pricing," he said.

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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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