A venture capital fund that aims to help reduce poverty in India has
become one of the ten recipients of this year’s World Business Awards,
which showcase the best practices of the business sector in alleviating
poverty and boosting development.
The Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund, which lends to small
and medium-sized enterprises in India, received the award for is
contribution to meeting the UN’s millennium development goals. The fund
was founded to promote development in rural and semi-urban India and
provides micro-equity funding of between $20,000 and $100,000 to
commercially viable companies that provided goods and services to rural
or semi-urban India. A for-profit organization, it is self-sustaining.
The World Business Awards are run by the International Chamber of
Commerce, the International Business Leaders Forum and the United
Nations Development Programme. Mary Robinson, former president of
Ireland and current chair of The Ethical Globalization Initiative,
presented the awards in New York last month.
Selections were made by an independent panel chaired by Robinson, drawn
from business, labour, research and academic organizations, with
representatives from ICC, UNDP and IBLF. Panellists evaluated 73
projects from 33 countries. The Aavishkaar fund was the only winner
from the Asia-Pacific region.
