Not exactly one of the most glamorous demographics to cater to, sex workers symbolize so much of what can be described as structural or systemic poverty. The squalor of the red-light districts in the urban areas of India do not provide much opportunity for the daughters of sex workers to escape the cycle of oppression [...]

From NGO Post: MBAs Without Borders (MWB) is bringing innovative solutions to developing countries by matching experienced business volunteers with local businesses and NGOs to unleash a big secret… Business can do Amazing Things! MWB’s volunteers provide a wide range of business support services in Africa, Asia and Latin America which includes locations such as: [...]

Earlier today I posted and Op-Ed on why I believe that microfinance is an incomplete solution to ending poverty because it does not lead to job creation — a necessary precondition for development. This concern has clearly been considered within the microfinance community themselves, as Bhandan — a MFI that targets women in Bengal — [...]

From PSD Blog — World Bank Group: A new health insurance plan will enable the poor in India to buy health insurance for less than 10 cents a month, and it will cover natural disasters including Tsunamis. The new program is a partnership between and aid group, CARE International, and a private insurer, Allianz. It [...]

Headlines from around the town: Include women in governance agenda: Women’s Charter Against Poverty To mark the International Women’s Day, Indian anti-poverty network Wada Na Todo Abhiyan has released a report highlighting the recommendations of the Women’s Tribunal Against Poverty held in October last year. The charter against poverty reinforces the demand for women’s access [...]

Update: PSD Blog just announced that a new tsunami insurance will be specifically designed for the poor. See post above. While anyone who has watched Al Gore’s riveting documentary An Inconvenient Truth understands the potentially catastrophic effects climate change could have on densely populated communities, an article in End Poverty in South Asia brings this [...]

A recent article in the New Yorker echoed sentiments expressed by many venture capitalists that have begun to shift their focus on the developing world and BoP markets that microfinance, while an amazing concept for enable entrepreneurs, cannot in itself lift countries out of poverty. James Surowiecki writes: Microloans are often used to “smooth consumption”—tiding [...]

Selected headlines from various sources: Ministry plans to set up 10 organ banks If the proposal comes through, doctors in government hospitals will be able to remove organs of a patient who is either dead or brain-dead for transplant, with or without seeking consent of relatives. Govt maps areas hit by malaria A map, which [...]

Hello readers, We recently just launched two Google calendars with the aim to keep our readers up to date on pending deadlines, dates and events relevant to social entrepreneurship in India. Please check them out by going to the Calendars tab on top of the blog. Feel free to subscribe to them in your own [...]

Not to be confused with this blog (although all of the staff of ThinkChange India are members), a new organization called ThinkChange is a social entrepreneurship roundtable in New York City whose goal is to help ideas become real, sustainable projects. Here is an excerpt from their email invite: CHANGE. What exactly does it mean? [...]