Posted on October 17, 2009 by Raj Melville
A new breed of ventures has begun innovating revenue models to build greater capacity and sustain operations. These approaches leverage the power of markets and have discovered the sustainable power of partnering with their customers to meet their social needs. More details at
http://blog.ambientengines.com
Filed under: Conference, Rural Development, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, non-profit, social Innovation, sustainable development | Tagged: Babson college, Boston, Conference, ecosystem, Equal Exchange, Food Supply, ForSE, More than Words, New England Rain Barrel, non-profit, Revision Urban Farm, Rural Development, Service, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, social Innovation, Social Investment, sustainability, sustainable development, Sustainable ventures | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 11, 2009 by Raj Melville
In the past decade, much progress has been made in India and people have been justifiably proud of the improving economic situation. While most observers point to the top line numbers that show the number of people living below the “poverty line” has been consistently decreasing, by focusing on just these aseptic numbers, they fail to understand and capture the continuing anguish in the rural countryside.
Filed under: BOP, India, Poverty, Rural Consumer, Rural Development, Rural Education, Sanitation, Schools, bottom of the pyramid, water and sanitation | Tagged: Agricultural Development, BOP, George Foundation, India, Poverty, Rural Development, Rural Education, Shanti Bhavan, Social Impact, World Bank | Leave a Comment »
Posted on June 16, 2009 by Raj Melville
For the first time TIECON EAST – TiE Boston’s annual conference on entrepreneurship and innovation – had a dedicated track on Social Enterprise. The three panels for the track were all well attended. Here are some excerpts from an article I wrote for Lokvani about the sessions.
Filed under: Agricultural Development, Conference, Food, Health, India, Information Technology, Investment, Micro-enterprises, Rural Development, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, environment, international development, micro-finance, microfinance, mobile technology, social Innovation, sustainability | Tagged: Agricultural Development, Boston, Conference, Food Supply, Health, India, Information Technology, internet, micro-finance, microcredit, mobile technology, Rural Development, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, Social Impact, sustainability, sustainable development, Sustainable ventures, TIECON | Leave a Comment »
Posted on May 13, 2009 by Raj Melville
Responding to a comment on my recent blog post on “The Increasing Focus on the Rural Indian Consumer” I decided to write a longer response outlining what needs to be done to really address increasing rural income in India.
Filed under: Agricultural Development, BOP, India, Poverty, Rural Consumer, Rural Development, Rural Education, Rural Entrepreneur, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, bottom of the pyramid, international development, social Innovation, sustainable development | Tagged: Agricultural Development, BOP, eJeevika, rural BPO, Rural Consumer, Rural Development, Rural Education, Rural Entrepreneur, sustainable development, Vigyan Ashram | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 6, 2009 by Raj Melville
I have been in India for the past week and one of the trends I have noticed is the increased focus on the rural market. Perhaps it is the ongoing elections or maybe the global recession, but companies across the board seem to have a renewed emphasis on targeting the rural consumer. Here are a few key facts that seem to stand out.
Filed under: Agricultural Development, BOP, India, Investment, Poverty, Rural Consumer, Rural Development, bottom of the pyramid, micro-finance, microfinance, mobile technology, sustainable development | Tagged: BOP, Coca Cola, eJeevika, GE, India, micro-finance, mobile technology, Poverty, rural BPO, Rural Consumer, Rural Development, Social Impact, sustainable development, Wall Street Journal, WIPRO | 3 Comments »
Posted on September 6, 2008 by Raj Melville
Last Week’s Time magazine had an article written by Jeffery Sachs titled “Safety in Numbers” that highlights programs that are recruiting community workers to provide basic health services in rural communities. By investing in basic health care training of community workers, these programs provide a safety net for thousands of poor people who would otherwise be unattended.
Filed under: BOP, Health, India, Poverty, Rural Development, Rural Health, Social Ecosystem | Tagged: Anbumani Ramadoss, BOP, Health, Health Insurance, healthcare, India, Information Technology, Jeffery Sachs, Poverty, Rural Development, Rural Health, Satyam, Time Magazine | Leave a Comment »
Posted on August 28, 2008 by Raj Melville
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “India’s Poor Get Health Care in a Card”, outlines a program being launched in India to provide affordable healthcare to the masses. The key component of the program, which is targeted at those earning less than $100 per year, is the use of a secure smart card to store the beneficiary’s personal data and fingerprints.
Filed under: BOP, Information Technology, Politics, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, international development, social Innovation | Tagged: BOP, Health, Health Insurance, hospital, ICICI, India, Information Technology, National Health Insurance Program, Poverty, Rural Development, smart card, Wall Street Journal | Leave a Comment »
Posted on August 8, 2008 by Raj Melville
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the final presentation of the International Development Design Summit at MIT – the brainchild of Amy Smith, MacArthur Fellow and lecturer in MIT’s Mechanical Engineering department. This, now yearly, event brought together nearly 60 students from 20 countries around the world to work together with a team of mentors and staff to tackle a number of design problems facing NGOs and non-profits in developing countries.
Filed under: Agricultural Development, BOP, Education, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, international development, sustainable development | Tagged: Agricultural Development, Amy Smith, BOP, design, engineering design, IDDS, innovation, international development, invention, MacArthur Fellow, mechanical engineering, MIT, Rural Development, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, social Innovation, sustainable development | Leave a Comment »
Posted on August 1, 2008 by Raj Melville
The Gates Foundation has made some major investments in the area of finance over the past few years. Now, based on their findings and experiments, they are making a big push into the area of micro-savings.
Filed under: BOP, Information Technology, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, international development, micro-finance, social Innovation | Tagged: Ethiopia, Gates Foundation, Information Technology, Kenya, M-Pesa, MFI, micro-finance, microcredit, microfinance, microsavings, Opportunity International, Poverty, rural banks, Rural Development, rural savings, Vodafone, Wall Street Journal | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 2, 2008 by Raj Melville
I had the opportunity to visit Vigyan Ashram in February. Vigyan Ashram is a residential rural education center founded 25 years ago. Over the years, Vigyan Ashram has significantly changed the local economy, providing livelihood to many in the region while training scores of youth and making them self sufficient. More importantly, it has now been formalized as a regular course on Rural Technology and taught at 25 schools in the state of Maharashtra.
Filed under: Agricultural Development, Education, Rural Development, Rural Education, Rural Entrepreneur, Social Ecosystem | Tagged: Agricultural Development, Education, India, Maharashtra, Pabal, Pune, Rural Development, Rural Education, Rural Entrepreneur, Social Ecosystem | Leave a Comment »
