In response to concerns about fair lending processes, standardized rates, and a lack of transparency in microfinance institutions (MFIs), the Standard Chartered Bank, the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Bankers Association will launch India Microfinance Platform (IMFP) will be established this month due to "over-heating, employee poaching, multiple lending, and lack of common reporting" in the sector. Ultimately the platform will standardize microfinance reporting and allow a joint loan portfolio audit of Indian microfinance heavyweights such as SKS Microfinance, Bandhan, and Equitas.

With the online population growing at far greater speed in developing and emerging markets than in North America and Western Europe, the opportunities for businesses and brands to prosper on an international scale are vast. To accomplish in obtaining a global brand, VentureBeat offered five tips including focused on localization and unified marketing. 

While the partnership was announced last spring, Marvell has formally committed $5.6 million to One Laptop per Child (OLPC). The grant will support OLPC’s efforts to create an affordable tablet called XO 3, which represents an evolution to their original product of the laptop. 

A cofounder of a Mint competitor discusses and reminisces over all the reasons and rumors in how and why his company Wesabe failed. While listing the reasons and either validating or dismissing the claim, this account should resonate with many entrepreneurs. His company while arguably the first in this space for online personal finances quickly became crowded with competitors and in a matter of a year, one company would be sold $170 million and the other would shut down its operations.

Sunlight is the world's most plentiful resource. That is, of course, why the United States has scrambled in recent years to supplant dirty, nonrenewable energy sources with ambitious solar projects. In this article, Fast Company looks at some of the most exciting solar projects--both existing and planned--in the country.

This past week the Acumen Fund opened their applications for their fellowship program. The mission of the Acumen Fund Fellows Program is to build a corps of next generation social sector leaders by fusing operational and financial skills with moral imagination to create solutions to global poverty and fill the talent gap. Over the last five years, there have been 44 Fellows. Apply to be part of the class of 2012.

Teju Ravilochan is a co-founder of the Unreasonable Institute, an international accelerator for social ventures in Boulder, Colorado. This past summer the Institute brought together twenty-two social entrepreneurs across fifteen countries for a mentor-intensive program. Ravilochan reflects on the ten- week program and the major lessons he learned from the value of exposure to the importance of peer mentorship.

This past year our friends at First Light Ventures tried an innovative approach to seed investing. In four locations First Light committed a minimum of $150k and challenged entrepreneurs to vet their peers and make the investment decisions on behalf of their firms. These Village Capital Funds ultimately made investments in educational accountability software to direct trade coffee. This coming year First Light Ventures has partnered with one of their original partners at the Hub by committing a $750k seed fund.