Vision India 2020: Doctor At Hand

Many readers write to me with ideas for Vision 2020 ventures. One, Dr. Vaman Shanbhag, a neurologist in Mumbai, sent me a great idea for a healthcare venture which inspired Doctor At Hand.

Forbes Column 08: Mobile Microfinance

My new Forbes column, Mobile Microfinance discusses how startups are trying to use the cell phone to bring banking to the under-banked.

Next Phase in High Tech Individualism

By Michael Kanazawa, Guest Author Dell just announced a massive change in direction that may leave a mark as meaningful as when Ford shifted the market from individual coach-builders to mass production. It’s not exactly the same situation, but it is a shift in manufacturing and business model that makes a huge statement about social

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Web 3.0 & eBay (Part 5)

Conclusion We have had a look at eBay’s business and verticals and discussed them from a Web 3.0 perspective over the last few days. eBay has been experiencing a slow down in its growth rate. Skype is struggling and the Company is working on better monetizing Skype. PayPal on the other hand has been doing

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Interdigital: Visionary Beginning, Rocky Past

By Vijay Nagarajan, Guest Author Interdigital Communications Corporation (IDCC) is a King of Prussia, Pa based mid-cap company that thrives primarily on income from its intellectual property (IP) portfolio spanning 2G and 3G wireless technologies. Before I present my outlook on the company, let me throw in some historic perspective. International Mobile Machines Corporation (IMM),

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InfoSpace’s Slide Down

It all began exactly 12 years back in August 1995 when Netscape Communications came out with an IPO. With no profit in its book to show, Netscape nevertheless sold stocks worth $2.2 billion. Thus commenced the Dotcom era. InfoSpace founder Navin Jain, who then worked for MSN, soon left to start his own company in

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Tom Tom + Tele Atlas: Perfect Match

If there is ever a perfect marriage, this could be it. Tom Tom’s (AMS: TOM2) planned acquisition of Tele Atlas (AMS: TA) is perfect in more senses than one. For one thing, both are Dutch companies, with synergistic businesses, and a merger integration will be dramatically easier based on that reason alone. But of course,

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Innovation in the Microfinance Industry

By Robert Lowry, Unitus Microfinance is a powerful, sustainable way of reducing poverty. However, despite its tremendous strength, it’s just not available to enough people. Three decades after Muhammad Yunus started giving microloans to women in the village near his university in Bangladesh, fewer than 20% of the world’s working poor have access to basic

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