Category Archives: BOP

Tapan Parikh – Technology Review’s Humanitarian of the Year 2007

Posted on August 8, 2008 | Leave a comment

I had the pleasure of meeting Tapan Parikh a few weeks ago when he presented on a panel at a conference to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of my alma mater, IIT Bombay. The panel focused on the latest trends in technology with the rest of the panelists discussing emerging areas in nanotechnology, biomedicine and energy. Tapan provided a refreshingly different viewpoint that emphasized the needs of the end user in developing countries. By harnessing technology to make things simpler, Tapan has provided platforms that make the daily grind of field workers in rural parts of the world a lot easier. Continue reading →

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Posted in BOP, Information Technology, international development, micro-finance, mobile technology, Poverty, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development

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Gates Foundation gets into Microsavings

Posted on August 1, 2008 | Leave a comment

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. Traditionally rural finance has focused on providing micro-credit services to the poor. Only recently have some of the micro-finance organizations started extending their services to include savings and insurance. In most cases the issue has been local regulations and banking controls.

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal – Giving a Lot for Saving a Little – the author points out several issues why savings schemes for the rural poor have not taken off. Among the issues identified:

  • Strict regulations on entities that hold deposits
  • Lack of remote branches that allow easy access to money
  • Too costly for traditional banks to provide services for the size of accounts Continue reading →

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Posted in BOP, Information Technology, international development, micro-finance, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, social Innovation

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Motomen make Wireless Internet happen

Posted on July 12, 2008 | Leave a comment

A couple of years ago, I met with Amir Hasson Alexander, an enterprising young man from MIT with a vision of bringing internet connectivity to the 2 Billion underserved in the farthest regions of the world. Using buses equipped with WiFi. Amir’s company, United Villages  (www.unitedvillages.com)  and his enterprising band of ‘Motomen, provides web content to computers with no internet connection. A small box, with an antenna, onboard the buses or motorcycles, communicates with the rural computers. Every time a WiFi bus/motorcycle rolls by the village, the web content on the village kiosk computer is updated and email delivered. In remote locations with no wired connections, villagers can communicate – albeit asynchronously – with their cousins in faraway lands, order parts, lodge complaints, or review the status of their claims. With every kiosk Hasson’s company makes the world a smaller place.

Click here to see a CNN video of Amir’s Cambodian Motomen scooting around on their bikes

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Posted in BOP, Information Technology, international development, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation

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Major Indian political parties quote Social Entrepreneurial thinkers

Posted on July 11, 2008 | Leave a comment

Mainstream politics in India is picking up on themes of key social entrepreneurial thinkers as the two major parties prepare for elections.

In an interesting observation on the Acumen Fund Blog the blogger, Uma Hemachandran, points out that with the unexpected upset of the BJP in the last elections, in part due to inadequate attention to those struggling at the bottom, the party is now taking a page, quite literally, out of CK Prahalad’s “Bottom of the Pyramid“.

She references a speech by BJP’s LK Advani, in June 2008 where he says, “In this context, I must say that I am highly impressed by C.K. Prahlad’s theory about “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”. I agree with his approach to poverty alleviation, which states that “if we stop seeing the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunities will open up.”

Meanwhile the Congress party realizing how it got into power has also been quoting populist thinkers. When presenting the 2007-2008 budget last year, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram quoted Dr. Yunus to justify their actions by saying, “As Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate, said, “Faster growth rate is essential for faster reduction in poverty. There is no other trick to it.”“

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Posted in BOP, Politics, Poverty, Social Ecosystem

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Designing for the bottom of the pyramid

Posted on July 6, 2008 | Leave a comment

A few months ago I wrote an article on the new focus on the “Bottom of the Pyramid”. The BOP as it is known is loosely defined as the 2 to 2.5 Billion people around the world who manage on less than $2 per day. The affluent tip of the pyramid in contrast consists of less than 100 million people who make over $20,000 a year.

Recently, there has been an increasing focus by organizations to address this segment with products and services tailored to their needs. The trend was popularized in C.K. Prahalad‘s book “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid“.  I tried to extract some of the core approaches used to address this market. Here is the short version. You can see my entire article on Lokvani by clicking here.

  • Reengineering Organizational Processes:  Reduce process costs by reexamining every step. By focusing on improved delivery models, new systems are able to provide services to thousands who would otherwise not be able to afford it.
  • Building Affordable Financing Models: Match small scale loan payments to meet customer needs and cash flows. Leverage local support systems and peer pressure to encourage timely repayment.
  • Leveraging Rural Networks: Tap into existing informal networks and make them work to support the product or service.
  • Designing Local Solutions: Tailor indigenous materials and processes to provide similar functionality. Use local talent to iterate design solutions.

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Posted in BOP, micro-finance, Rural Development, Social Ecosystem, social Innovation

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