NextBillion brings together the community of business leaders, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, policy makers, and academics who want to explore the connection between development and enterprise.
Our staff scans hundreds of news sources every day to create a custom newsfeed. When the mainstream media covers the development through enterprise space, you can expect to find it here
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 -- ACCION(R) International, a pioneer and leader in global microfinance, today announced that it plans to expand its investments to support the development and marketing of microinsurance services to the poor.
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Click reporter David Reid travelled to Hyderabad for the Internet Governance Forum - where governments and net users discuss what's next for the web.
The talk at the IGF was about how to get the net's next billion users online and how it can aid economic development.
"It is not just about surfing the internet faster and downloading movies, this is actually one of the most vital and important economic tools of the twenty first century," said Marcus Courtney from Uni Global Union, which represents more than 900 trade unions globally.
He said the internet "can be an economic development tool" provided fundamental human rights are recognised.
Bangalore : A major market research company was recently tasked by a French NGO to explore mobile phone usage patterns in slums in Kolkata, including the kind of information they like to receive on their phones and the price they were willing to pay, as part of an effort to scope out business opportunities entwined in social development.
A start-up technology company in Bangalore is exploring ways to make low-end mobile phone experiences as entertaining as high-end ones with the understanding that low income groups are a large untapped market base.
By AMOL SHARMA
Vodafone Group PLC plans to announce a partnership Monday with Western Union Co. to allow international money transfers via mobile phones, as the wireless carrier seeks to tap into the increasing flow of cross-border remittances.
The companies are initially launching a pilot program that will allow residents of Reading in the United Kingdom to send money to family members and friends in Kenya, where Vodafone is the 40% owner of local wireless operator Safaricom Ltd. If that program is successful, the companies will expand it to other countries.
Venture capitals in India, which traditionally invested in urban segments or technology sector, have begun investing in rural-centric technology firms. Avishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund, Acumen Fund, and Rural Innovations Network are showing increased focus on rural markets.
A non-profit investment firm E+Co, with investments in 28 countries, plans to begin operations in India. The firm with $183 million capital mobilised and $24.6 million investment portfolio will focus on clean technology.
"India has very few funds that look at investing in rural India. But what's heartening to see is that the sector now has a few options and entrepreneurs can approach for investment," said Arun Natarajan, MD and CEO, Venture Intelligence.
By Antonio Regalado
During presentations at McCann Worldgroup's office in Bogotá, Colombia, staffers have taken to letting a chicken loose to hunt and peck around clients' feet.
In Mexico City, the big advertising agency hired a local merchant to install racks of potato chips and otherwise transform its conference room into a bodega, or corner grocery store. Clients lunch on tacos served on a plastic table mat.
The point of these exercises: to give big marketers some insight into the lifestyles of Latin America's low-income consumer.
Executives at McCann, which is owned by Interpublic Group, are unveiling this month a new division, called Barrio, that will specialize in marketing products to those on the bottom rungs of the economy, from Mexico to Chile.
By Steve Hamm
As chief executive of Mercy Corps since 1994, Neal Keny-Guyer helped turn the Portland (Ore.) relief organization into a global powerhouse with 3,500 employees and a budget of nearly $300 million. But he was taken aback last year when one of his lieutenants proposed the radical step of buying a bank in Indonesia. Why would a not-for-profit disaster relief agency go the capitalist route and buy a bank?
In rural areas of India, local midwives have a new device to help them deliver babies: a headlamp. The headlamp, which is solar charged, not only makes their work easier but also replaces kerosene lamps, which provide poor light quality and run on costly fuel that emits heat and pollutes the air. To pay for the lamps, midwives can turn to microfinance institutions for small loans.
The matching of the headlamps and micro-loans was the brainchild of Harish Hande, an entrepreneur who is promoting access to electric power for poor rural populations through Selco, his rural sustainable energy company. Mr Hande’s strategy is an example of the innovations emerging as companies, multilateral institutions and development groups seek new models through which to deliver power to the world’s poorest communities.
Tralance Addy knows all too well what can happen to people if they run afoul of dirty water. When his company, WaterHealth International, was shooting a video to promote its water purification systems for rural villages, he posed beside a lake near Hyderabad, India, that was none too clean. The video producers suggested he reach down into the lake and let the water run through his fingers. Which he did. Unfortunately, he forgot to wash his hands immediately afterward. A few hours later, he became violently ill and had to be hospitalized. He didn't completely recover for six weeks. Says Addy, 63: "We were trying to demonstrate something about bad water, and I really did it."
By Andrew Kuper
The financial services industry is facing unprecedented challenges worldwide due to excessive risk-taking. Complicated investment vehicles, insufficient transparency and excessive swapping of credit default risk have had a severe and pervasive impact on confidence. The world's most advanced markets for financial services are reeling in uncertainty.
Standing in stark contrast to these perilous markets is the largest, most underserved market per capita in existence today: the low-income population in developing countries. According to the International Finance Corporation in a joint report with the World Resources Institute, this population of low-income consumers "at the base of the pyramid" has $5 trillion in annual purchasing power globally.
