Op-Ed

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IGNOU offers education for free

The Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) has launched a portal called Flexi-Learn in an effort to offer education over internet free of cost.

The launched portal is not yet complete, with only a handful of courses in  Library and Information Science, agriculture…

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Devising Scalable Deployment Strategies for mHealth

Over the course of this academic year, I intend to work alongside D-Tree and Dimagi on developing a sustainable deployment and scale-up model for CommCare, a mobile-based scheduling, monitoring, and referral application for community health workers (CHWs).  Through its “Safe Pregnancy” module,…

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Match Point: How to Reach Rural Markets

Question: Which manufactured consumer product has the deepest market penetration in rural India?

Answer: Matches

In fact, 97% of rural households purchase matches on a monthly basis. Matches are a unique product because of their high, constant demand and low price point.…

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[Guest Post]: Reintegration of Trafficked Women through Enterprise

A few kilometers past Charminar, the heart of the old city of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, an auto rickshaw stops in front of a quiet, non-descript gate. Across the road is the Falaknuma Palace, in the process of getting a major…

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[Guest Post]: Even Education is Flat

Editor’s Note: The following post is a collaboration between Adrienne Villani, a member of the Beyond Profit Editorial Team, and Semil Shah, a Principal at India Strategy Consulting, a boutique services firm that advises small and medium enterprises and global…

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[Guest Post]: Can You Be a Social Entrepreneur if You’re Not the Head Honcho?

We’ve been ruminating lately on something that may ruffle a few feathers. It’s about the definition of social entrepreneur. Traditionally, an entrepreneur (the “mainstream” species) is a person who runs an enterprise or a venture. She is an ambitious leader, likely…

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[Guest Post]: It’s Not All Bull: Mainstream Business Can Fight Poverty

It is a dusty, sun-baked road that takes us to Singampet village in Mahbubnagar district, over a hundred kilometers away from Hyderabad, the capital of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India. The surrounding fields are bare, waiting for the…

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[Guest Post]: Access for All

Access For All

Sachin Malhan has been an entrepreneur his entire life, or at least he has felt like one. In 2003, knowing that corporate law was not his cup of tea, he started his first venture, and then his second, and…

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[Guest Post]: Kicking Open the Door

Editor’s Note: Guest blogger Adrienne Villani is an Associate at Intellecap, where she is involved in the conceptualization and creation of content for Beyond Profit, Intellecap’s publication on social enterprise and social entrepreneurship, both in print and online. Trained as a demographer,…

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[Op-Ed]: Free mobile phones for the rural poor – let’s call it “Wireless Welfare”

Free Mobile Phones for the PoorThe idea popped when I was reading this NY Times article on a federally funded program in the US where wireless carriers receive a subsidy to provide people under welfare with a mobile phone and 68 minutes of talk time each month!…