NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

BANGALORE: HP on Wednesday announced a revolutionary pen-based technology that allows users to compute in their respective languages even without prior knowledge of English or typing. The gesture-based keyboard [GKB], developed by researchers at HP Labs India, also holds the potential for Indian languages derived from the Devanagari ? Tamil scripts and Kannada scripts ? to be used in a similar manner. This is to benefit more than 1.5 billion non-Engli...

Source

The Hindu (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Life insurance coming to rural India, 1 town/day

Bajaj Allianz notches up some good numbers selling life insurance in India?s smaller towns. Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance was languishing among the also-rans about a year ago. Today, it is in the reckoning for the top slot among private sector life insurers. The credit for this goes to Sam Ghosh, Bajaj Allianz?s CEO and country head for Allianz, who transformed the company from a niche play to mass marketer. Ghosh was chosen to spearhead Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance in January 2004, after he deli...

Source

BusinessStandard.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Private-Public partnership model to improve the livelihoods of the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP)

CII - ICRISAT & Coca-Cola Foundation Collaboration for Backward Areas Development through Strategic Intervention in Watershed Development The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Coca-Cola Foundation will collaborate for sustainable and equitable management of Rural Water Resources Infrastructure and other Natural Resources Management (NRM) through watershed+ interventions in Dungarpur district...

Source

Moneycontrol.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Seminar in New Delhi discusses commercial engagement with world?s poorest.

FMS, Delhi, in association with Centre of Civil Society organizes a Seminar on Local Entrepreneurship and Global Markets: Corporate Outreach to the Street and Village Entrepreneurs Date: February 4, 2006 Time: 3.45 p.m. Venue: Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi Discussion Background The idea that commercial engagement with world?s poorest (the Bottom of the Pyramid, BOP) presents corporations the op...

Source

Cool Avenues (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

India’s mobile giants battle it out in the villages

Mobile phone companies are taking cheap handsets and life-time prepaid services to India’s hundreds of millions of low-income earners in a bid to expand market share and maintain their break-neck rates of growth. Mobile ownership surged in December -- with a record 4.5 million new users -- after carriers targeted India’s poorer citizens with the launch of services that guarantee a number for life for just over $20. In the past, a prepaid number would cease to exis...

Source

Reuters (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

BASIX unveils 2 new products for SHGs

BASIX, a livelihood promotion institution, that is into micro-credit, agricultural development services, farmer cooperatives and so on, has come out with two new products for the self-help groups (SHGs), with one being a micro-credit plus capacity building product and the other a health insurance product. The products were launched at the national conference on ?Emerging opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid ? Transforming the Indian rural economy through profitability?. The micro...

Source

Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Piramal set for intl R&D deals

Andrew Jack And Khozem Merchant / Mumbai One of India’s leading pharmaceutical groups is set to sign a series of pioneering research and development agreements with large western groups, say executives. Swati Piramal, director of strategic alliances at Mumbai-based Nicholas Piramal, said senior delegations from leading multinational drugs companies had visited India in the past half-year, and some were set to announce collaborations with the company in a range of the...

Source

Business Standard (India) (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Professionals to Unlock Venture Capital Doors for Small Town Entrepreneurs

A group of professionals is unlocking venture capital doors for small town entrepreneurs The story of Aavishkaar is a fine example of sophisticated paying back by educated, affluent Indians spread all over the world. They realise it was India’s knowledge-edge that leveraged them to good lives and so they have sought to widen that edge, by funding small town Indians whose innovations can increase productivities and wealth in the countryside. Aavishkaar itself is a notable in...

Source

Good News Magazine India (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia