Via Economist.com

Mr Amte, a handsome man in his 30s, was better known as a big-shot criminal lawyer in Warora, in what is now Maharashtra in central India. He could charge as much as 50 rupees for arguing for 15 minutes. He was a member of the bridge club and the tennis club and vice-president of the Warora municipality, and he kept, outside town, an elegant farmhouse set in lush fields which he had never lifted a finger to cultivate himself. But after living with Mahatma Gandhi in his ashram in the mid-1940s, something had happened to him.

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It was the encounter with the dying leper, however, that shaped Mr Amte’s life. He was outraged at the fear he felt: fear of touching, as if he shared the common belief that lepers were paying for their sins and would infect anybody who came close. Where there was fear, he told himself, there was no love; and when an action was not done in love, it had no value. Deliberately, he went back to the gutter to feed the leper and to learn his name, Tulshiram. He then carried him home to care for him until he died, and began—once he had had training in Calcutta—to work in leper clinics all around the town.

Microinsurance is one such instrument for social protection. Of the estimated four billion people worldwide who live on less than $2 a day, fewer than 10 million currently have access to formal insurance from a regulated financial institution. Current work in the area of microinsurance is largely focused on delivering insurance to the poor by partnering with microfinance institutions. This approach is not sufficient, as millions of poor people in rural and other areas live far from a microfinance institution. Formal financial institutions, such as commercial banks and insurance companies, and other institutions, like community-based organizations, can also deliver and service insurance products effectively and profitably.

Horn OK Please now online at Sepia Mutiny

“HORN OK PLEASE” follows a monotonous day in the life of an Indian taxi driver named Lucky. Lucky’s goal is to earn enough rupees to buy the air-conditioned taxi of his dreams…

HORN OK PLEASE was produced in 2006 by Flickerpix Animations Ltd. in Belfast. It is a creative collaboration between animators from India and Northern Ireland.

This film is combination of stop-motion (clay) models and drawn, composited backgrounds. The whole film was shot on a NIKON D70 stills camera and post-produced in After Effects on a simple pc.

MIGA launched two new websites yesterday that should delight foreign investors considering new markets. Both free, FDI.net and PRI-Center combine World Bank Group analysis with public resources on foreign direct investment and political risk insurance.

Development Marketplace 2007 open for entries – World Bank Group

Have a good idea for a development project? Need $50,000 to $200,000 in funding?

The World Bank’s Development Marketplace is offering $4 million in awards for innovative projects to improve health, nutrition and population outcomes (read: high fertility) of poor people in developing countries. Submit an application online by November 17.

To all the Indians reading this blog, a very Happy Independence Day! Aug 15th of every year brings a sense of pride in our democracy! For the past many decades, as a nation we’ve managed to pull through multiple difficulties and insurmountable odds. Not a day goes by without the WSJ or the Economist mentioning about the resurgent India. I see young and eager Indians, willing to learn, ready for hard work, all across the world. Long live Indian freedom and democracy! For the first time in many decades, there is buoyant hope among the teeming millions.

Lets remember Gandhiji’s talisman on this day.

“I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test:

RECALL THE FACE OF THE POOREST AND THE WEAKEST MAN WHOM YOU MAY HAVE SEEN AND ASK YOURSELF IF THE STEP YOU CONTEMPLATE IS GOING TO BE OF ANY USE TO HIM.

Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?

Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away.”

And here is a short clip that will bring smiles on many of our faces on this day.

Hedge funds take long-term view on India
Most foreign investors in the Indian stock market have decided to sit out current volatility in the belief that rewards will justify the risks, according to delegates at an Indian hedge fund conference.

India’s economic growth potential is as strong as it was before the recent equity price tumble and investors should keep faith with the market, they said. The drop in Indian stocks from all-time highs – 28 percent since May 11 – has raised questions about whether India’s economic and earnings growth potential has been overestimated.

The sell-off was triggered by panic reaction to a number of factors including stock price falls around the world, the possibility — later denied — that India’s government may tax income from stock investments, and higher benchmark Indian interest rates.

Bloomberg.com:
Blackstone Group LP, manager of the world’s biggest buyout fund, may raise $500 million this year to invest in India, where a slide in the stock market has made the search for possible targets easier, said the firm’s country head.

Blackstone hasn’t spent any of the $1 billion pledged for India when it entered the country in May last year because the New York-based firm found more attractive targets in other markets, said Akhil Gupta, Blackstone’s chairman in India. A dedicated fund would commit the company to investing, he said.

The firm is competing with rivals such as Carlyle Group Inc. and Warburg Pincus LLC as well as hedge funds in seeking to tap a $775 billion economy the government says can grow as much as 10 percent a year. A 22 percent drop in India’s benchmark stock index since it peaked at a record high on May 10 may make investing easier by bringing asset valuations down.

Is Indian Business Ready for a Brave New World of Tough Corporate Governance?:

Business Week profiles five Indian firms (table) who have realized that â??Westernâ?? models are not the only way to do business:

What characterizes the best of the Indian outfits? They’ve learned to question the basic concepts of their industries, an attitude born of collective experienceâ?¦ So the best ones learned how to devise ingenious, low-cost solutions to their problems and even reimagine industries such as software services.

Such creative thinking has allowed these firms to cater to a huge segment of the population which larger firms often ignore. For example, rumor has it that telecom provider Bhart is able to operate at a 50% profit margin while at the same time only charging 2 cents per minute on calls. As NextBillion puts it:

An excellent review of some business models that are helping Indian firms serve the poor, profitably.