Trickle Up, an international poverty alleviation organization that empowers people living on less than $1.25 a day to take the first steps out of poverty, has released a documentary that profiles the impact of its work and the people it affects. “The Test of Poverty” follows two women living in extreme poverty in West Bengal, [...]

The Global Social Venture Competition, a MBA social venture competition that partners several different universities around the world, wrapped up this past weekend at UC Berkeley Haas Business School.   The GSVC is one of the most competitive gatherings in the social enterprise world, bringing together business plans that look at both profit and social impact.  [...]

Doodh Bhandar (DB), a plan focused on revolutionizing milk production in rural India, has reached the finals of the Harvard Business School (HBS) Business Plan Contest in the Social Enterprise track. Cattle are one of the most important assets for rural families in India and an improvement in their productivity will have a significant socio-economic [...]

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and Nextbillion.net recently published a great interview with C. K. Prahalad on the role of private enterprise in development and poverty alleviation. Prahalad is the author of The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid and one of the pioneers of the idea of BOP (the 4 billion people living [...]

This year, I’m helping to run the Harvard International Development Conference (IDC) at the Harvard Kennedy School.  It promises to be an exciting event, with panel topics ranging from the role of mobile technology as a means of alleviating poverty to private sector-led, entrepreuneurial models for development.  If you intend on attending the conference, please [...]

The inspirational, energy-filled, and fun TED conference is heading to India this year.  From November 4-7, 2009, TEDIndia will take place in Mysore and bring together speakers and delegates that are reinventing India.  The huge success of TED makes its arrival in India even more exciting.  At TC-I, we covered a few TED talks here, [...]

The Centre for Development Finance (CDF) announces some very exciting internship opportunities for this summer.  If you’re looking for something more long term, word has it that CDF will likely be releasing postings for BoP related full time positions in the coming weeks… check back for more information! Total Immersion Programme in Finance and Development [...]

A few headlines regarding the World Bank recently caught my eye, mostly because they are not the usual development headlines I am used to reading.  In the Business Standard‘s “Migration to urban areas is good, says World Bank,” and domain-b.com‘s “India’s rural job schemes are barriers to development: World Bank news,” the focus is on [...]

Aahar: Meals for Poor at Rs. 5, has won the grand prize ($10,000) at the  Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (GSEC) as reported by IndiaPRwire. The business plan was presented by a group of students from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, (NMIMS) Mumbai. GSEC was organized by the Foster School of Business at UW [...]

Clean drinking water is in my opinion the most critical issue that must be addressed in any area suffering from poverty. So any news like this one gives me hope and a smile on my face. WaterHealth India has recently received a $25 million loan to install more than 600 water filtration systems throughout India. [...]