Saturday, January 31, 2009
Being Quoted in the Financial Times
The Financial Times of London is carrying an interesting piece called "Charity Alone is Not the Answer" and it quotes from an interview Amy Yee did with me a long time back. The thrust of the piece is something that I've discussed on this blog several times, namely that international aid is a sub-optimal economic development tool. In particular, the article discusses the role business and philanthropy can play. Amy also mentions the SME fund that I helped set up with Soros, Google and Omidyar.
SMEs are an important engine for economic growth and job creation but are sorely lacking in India due, in part, to a lack of the financing needed to scale up. Reuben Abraham, senior adviser to the fund based in Hyderabad, met with George Soros in 2006 and said the billionaire financier “was intrigued by SMEs”.
The fund looks beyond India’s traditional investment sectors of IT and telecoms to invest between $500,000 and $3.5m in a variety of neglected but essential sectors, such as urban waste disposal and worker training for emerging industries such as retail, hospitality and healthcare. “Every inefficiency you see in the country is a potential way to make money,” said Mr Abraham.
