Category Archives: India

How to multiply your social impact 2X to 6X

Posted on June 9, 2009 | 1 comment

In 2005 Kiva launched a website that allowed individuals to provide small loans to needy entrepreneurs around the world. The money was directed through microfinance institutions (MFIs) to their customers. When the site launched it had only 7 businesses in Uganda. Then their story got picked up by the Daily Kos and donations started flooding their site. With all the subsequent publicity Kiva was unable to line up beneficiaries fast enough to keep up with the donations coming in and for a while had to put a hold on its site.

Fast forward to 2008, Bala Vishwanath, an alum of top Indian tech and management schools – IIT and IIM – saw an opportunity to unstick the Kiva bottleneck and to multiply the social impact of every dollar. He quit his job and worked to setup www.UnitedProsperity.org United Prosperity helps provide loan guarantees that enable poor entrepreneurs to borrow from Microfinance Institutions to build their enterprises in developing countries. Continue reading →

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Posted in bottom of the pyramid, India, international development, Micro-enterprises, micro-finance, microfinance, Philanthropy, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development

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An Exercise In Democracy

Posted on May 15, 2009 | 2 comments

A minor digression from this blog’s main theme. I recently visited India and was smack in the middle of the Indian elections. Wrote a short piece with my observations. Here is the entire piece from the original site http://www.Lokvani.com

An Exercise In Democracy Continue reading →

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Posted in India, Politics

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Reply to comment about Rural Indian Consumer

Posted on May 13, 2009 | 4 comments

In response to my recent post on Rural Consumers, Joost Bonsen of MIT commented.

Thanks much for your survey of the rural consumer landscape in India. I’m curious how what you’re observing either reinforces or differs from the Hart-Prahalad BOP thesis and the cases they give, such as Hindustan Lever, etc. Plus how much of the consumer goods sector is dominated by MNCs or affiliates versus homegrowns? And finally, what’s the rural analog to Walmart or the old Sears Roebuck catalog or other innovations in the distribution systems?

I got to thinking about what he had asked and decided to write up a separate post instead of replying as a comment. So here goes. Continue reading →

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Posted in Agricultural Development, BOP, bottom of the pyramid, India, international development, Poverty, Rural Consumer, Rural Development, Rural Education, Rural Entrepreneur, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development

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The Increasing Focus on the Rural Indian Consumer

Posted on May 6, 2009 | 3 comments

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.

Culling thru the headlines there are a few key facts that seem to stand out: Continue reading →

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Posted in Agricultural Development, BOP, bottom of the pyramid, India, Investment, micro-finance, microfinance, mobile technology, Poverty, Rural Consumer, Rural Development, sustainable development

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Jacqueline Novogratz – Legatum Lecture at MIT

Posted on April 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

We are a connected world said Jacqueline as she described the story of her blue sweater, also the title of her recently published book. Once discarded by her at Goodwill, it turned up 25 years later in Rwanda where she found it on a boy in the countryside.

Speaking at the Legatum Center’s Lecture series at MIT, she described the innovative work of Acumen fund and how it helps build social solutions through its venture philanthropy.

She prefaced her talk by some of her observations from her work helping to build enterprises around the world that she undertook since her time in Rwanda.

  • Dignity is more important than wealth for the human spirit.
  • Traditional models of charity won’t solve problems of poverty.
  • Markets can’t solve poverty. 100 Million people went back into poverty last year and that is what happens when you only rely on market forces to solve these problems.
  • What is needed is patient capital that will address these problems

Continue reading →

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Posted in Health, India, international development, Investment, Micro-enterprises, micro-finance, Poverty, Sanitation, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, venture philanthropy, Water

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