News
Scojo: Pyramid power 
The Economist, January 11, 2007
WILL seamstresses in Guatemala or poor farmers in India pay $3 for a pair of reading glasses? It seems unlikely. Such people are among the three billion or so who earn only a dollar or two a day. And yet Scojo Vision, an American optical firm, is betting that they will pay that princely sum for its spectacles.
The notion that only subsidies or handouts can provide the world's poorest with essential services such as health care is wrong, says Jordan Kassalow, Scojo's co-founder and a health expert affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank. Years of treating river blindness and other developing-world diseases as part of charity campaigns convinced him that such schemes often falter when the money or political will dries up. He believes the “bottom of the pyramid” would be better served by campaigns that involve some payment, so that costs are covered and the schemes are financially self-sustaining.
>> More Details | created on: 01/12/2007
India poised for pharmaceutical boom
By Mark Sappenfield, The Christian Science Monitor, January 2, 2007
For decades, India's drugmakers have been the pharmacy for the world's destitute, finding ways to copy the best medicines at the lowest prices. By some estimates, India's generic medicines treat half the AIDS patients in the developing world.
Yet this picture has begun to change since India decided to comply with global patent standards last year. Now as never before, Indian pharmaceutical companies are looking to expand business in rich countries, which, critics say, will come at the expense of the world's poor. The intent is to follow the footsteps of India's information-technology (IT) sector, which parlayed lower costs and improved innovation into India's greatest modern success story.
>> More Details | created on: 01/12/2007
Micro health insurance hedges risk for India's poorest
By Caitlin Cox, Yahoo News, November 8, 2006
Nandakumar Rajeshirke was suspicious of health insurance when he first heard about the idea three years ago. He had trouble understanding why it made sense to gamble on an unforeseen illness or accident when there was no guarantee he would ever see any money in return.
But his insurance provider, a network of nongovernmental organizations called UpLift India Association, had already earned his trust by supplying him with reliable microcredit to fund his stone carving business in the city of Pune. Mr. Rajeshirke decided to buy coverage for his whole family at 50 rupees ($1.10) per person annually and renewed the plan for several years in a row.
>> More Details | created on: 11/10/2006
Partnership Blends Philanthropy and Business to Cure Blindness
By Tom Watson, On Philanthropy, October 25, 2006
Innovative philanthropy that went well beyond the boundaries of the term itself was the hallmark of last month’s Clinton Global Initiative in New York. One particularly inventive partnership centered around an investment fund to finance the expansion of eye care hospitals in developing countries. The Eye Fund I will provide loans and guarantees to support the development of affordable, sustainable and accessible eye care for the world's poor while providing a near-market return for investors.
>> More Details | created on: 11/10/2006
Tata offers Rs 25 cr annual medical aid to poor
rediff news, July 19, 2006
The Tata Group and three other top business houses have joined hands with the Jharkhand government to ensure medical treatment to the state's below poverty line population.
Apart from the Tatas, Birla, Essar and Jindal group have formed the Sarva Swasthya Mission Trust -- which will be the first of its kind private-public partnership in the country.
This project will provide health coverage and medical treatment to the poorest of the poor in the state at affordable prices and also encourage good private sector health services to reach out to remote and rural areas, a release by the Tata Group said.
>> More Details | created on: 07/20/2006
Fighting Poverty With $2-a-Day Jobs
By Daniel Gross, The New York Times, July 16, 2006
JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ, a veteran of the Rockefeller Foundation and a former consultant to the World Bank, talks enthusiastically about the development of a company in Africa where some 2,000 women earn, on average, $1.80 a day producing antimalarial bed netting. With the assistance of a $350,000 loan from an American investor, the business started making the nets nearly three years ago and is likely to add 1,000 more jobs within the next year.
>> More Details | created on: 07/17/2006
Dharavi poor may get health cover
By Falaknaaz Syed, Business Standard, June 2, 2006
Scheme to see partnership between physicians and residents.
Over 30,000 families living below the poverty line in Asia’s largest slum at Dharavi may soon have insurance cover for their medical expenses and regular health check-ups, thanks to a unique care model.
>> More Details | created on: 06/05/2006
Poisonous Tree Frog Could Bring Wealth to Tribe in Brazilian Amazon
By Paulo Prada, The New York Times, May 30, 2006
CAMPINAS INDIAN RESERVE, Brazil — Fernando Katukina is chief of an indigenous tribe that lives largely without running water, electricity, or links to the world outside this remote corner of the western Amazon.
>> More Details | created on: 06/06/2006
WHO Paves Way for Medicines for the Poor
By Gustavo Capdevila, IPS News, May 29, 2006
GENEVA - The World Health Assembly concluded its annual session over the weekend with the adoption of a resolution that could change the concept of drug research and development, and open the door to a system that gives the world's poor greater access to medicines.
>> More Details | created on: 05/31/2006
New straw to kill disease as you drink
BBC News, May 12, 2006
A new straw that purifies water as it is drunk is hoped to be part of a solution to water-borne disease killing thousands in developing countries.
Created by Danish innovator Torben Vestergaard Frandsen the straw is made of plastic and resembles a flute. Inside are filters and a chamber impregnated with iodine. These remove the bacteria from the water as it is drunk.
>> More Details | created on: 05/12/2006
Six Trends Will Drive Sustainable Development, According to PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers, April 10, 2006
Sustainable development will steadily advance over the next 10 years, with six major trends influencing industry world-wide, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers' report, "Corporate Responsibility: Strategy, Management and Value." The challenge of creating strategies that meet immediate needs without sacrificing the needs of future generations will be driven by the growing influence of: global market forces; revisions in corporate governance; high speed innovation; large scale globalisation; evolving societal requirements and communication, the report says.
>> More Details | created on: 04/11/2006
HK explores new ways to help poor people
China View, April 6, 2006
More than 300 participants from various sectors on Thursday attended the Conference on Social Enterprise to discuss new approach to helping the poor.
>> More Details | created on: 04/07/2006
New environmental targets for DSM plants
Hugin News/DSM, March 26, 2006
The Nutrition Improvement Program, which focuses on the fortification of foods with vitamins and minerals in order to prevent disease and mortality due to malnutrition, is DSM's first initiative in the context of the 'Base of the Pyramid'. This is a new development in the field of sustainability to which the company will increasingly be paying attention.
>> More Details | created on: 04/04/2006
Bottled Water Big for Multinationals
By Mark Stevenson, Yahoo News, March 21, 2006
Violent protests have driven away corporate investment in desperately needed municipal water systems in developing nations. So the world's poor buy bottled water from Coke, Pepsi and other multinational companies.
>> More Details | created on: 03/30/2006
Building Wealth by the Penny
By John Lancaster, Washington Post, March 14, 2006
With its open sewers and mud-walled homes, this impoverished farming village of 2,200 in southern India did not look like fertile territory for an entrepreneur. But Srilatha Kadem was undeterred. Oblivious to the midday heat, she marched briskly along the unpaved streets, her cloth bag filled with soaps and shampoos and her heart with vaulting ambition.
>> More Details | created on: 03/14/2006
Grameen teams up with Groupe Danone to set up food plant
By Reaz Ahmad, The Daily Star, March 13, 2006
Microcredit guru Prof Muhammad Yunus launches a joint venture food enterprise in collaboration with one of the world's major food producers -- Groupe Danone.
>> More Details | created on: 03/22/2006
The Business of Giving
By The Economist, February 23, 2006
Philanthropy is flourishing as the number of super-rich people keeps growing. But the new donors are becoming much more businesslike about the way their money is used, says Matthew Bishop.
>> More Details | created on: 02/28/2006
The Birth of Philanthrocapitalism
By The Economist, February 23, 2006
RELATIVE to the corporate environment, we are in the 1870s. But philanthropy will increasingly come to resemble the capitalist economy, predicts Uday Khemka, a young Indian philanthropist and a director of the SUN Group investment company owned by his family.
>> More Details | created on: 02/28/2006
Business Prophet
By CK Prahalad, Business Week, January 23, 2006
This article discusses how strategy guru C.K. Prahalad is changing the way CEOs think.
>> More Details | created on: 01/27/2006
Putting Paid to Poverty
By Al Hammond & Bill Kramer, January 17, 2006
"Putting Paid to Poverty" provides a hopeful scenario for the development of the 'base of the pyramid' over the next ten years.
>> More Details | created on: 02/17/2006
For the Poor, Help from MBAs
By Francesca DiMeglio , Business Week Online, August 1, 2005
This article discusses how many MBAs are bringing microfinancing, business development—and eventually a consumer economy—to many impoverished Third World areas.
>> More Details | created on: 01/05/2006
What it's Like to Live on $1 a Day
The Christian Science Monitor, July 6, 2005
Discusses the day to day reality of living in poverty in Malawi.
>> More Details | created on: 11/23/2005
Pennies from the poor add up to fortune
By David Ignatius, The Korea Herald, July 1, 2005
>> More Details | created on: 01/03/2006
The Global Compact: A Business Perspective
International Chamber of Commerce, July 1, 2004
A look at the Global Compact as businesses begins to take more of a role in International Development.
>> View Article | created on: 11/18/2005
Strategic Innovation: Hindustan Lever Ltd
By Rekha Balu, Fast Company, June 1, 2001
Highlights Hindustan Lever's success through soap marketing and distribution at the BOP.
>> View Article | created on: 11/18/2005
Improving Health, Fighting Poverty: The Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
The Exchange, 2001
Addresses the power of technology in alleviating poverty but the risk of marginalizing the poor through this process.
>> View Article | created on: 11/18/2005
Cases
Bringing healthcare services to rural communities: Royal Philips Electronics
WBCSD, December 13, 2005
The poorer sections of rural Indian households spend close to 12% of their income on healthcare, making the availability and affordability of quality healthcare a major national issue. Nearly 60% of this population takes loans at interest rates of 60-120% per year to pay for either prolonged treatment or for hospitalization.
In India, Royal Philips Electronics aims to provide quality healthcare at an affordable price to the people who need it. In order to reach this goal, the company has custom-built a tele-clinical van complete with diagnostic equipment and dedicated doctors and para-medical staff.
>> More Details | created on: 07/13/2006
Fighting disease clean-handed: Unilever
WBCSD, November 16, 2005
Diarrhea causes over three million deaths a year worldwide, mostly among children. At a rate of one child every ten seconds, mortality from diarrheal diseases represents one-third of all deaths of children under the age of five in developing countries. Yet a World Bank study estimates that hand washing with soap and water can reduce diarrheal diseases by up to 48%, preventing over one and a half million children from dying each year.
>> More Details | created on: 07/13/2006
Focusing on the Triple Bottom Line: Natura
WBCSD, October 12, 2005
Brazil has a rich natural heritage, one-third of the world's remaining tropical forests, as is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. Natura’s Ekos Challenge aims to create a model to allow the sustainable use of natural resources, generating good business opportunity and social development for traditional communities and for Natura and its partners.
>> More Details | created on: 07/13/2006
Shell - Searching for sustainable solutions to indoor air pollution
WBCSD, August 15, 2005
Because Indoor air pollution (IAP) is the most serious energy and poverty-related health problem, the Shell Foundation has committed US$ 10 million to tackle IAP through its Household Energy and Health Programme, branded as “Breathing Space”. Breathing Space’s approach is to identify, test and then ideally diffuse “market-based” schemes for getting killer smoke out of very large numbers of very poor people’s kitchens. Under this program supply- and demand-side interventions based on business and market principles are being piloted in eight developing countries.
>> More Details | created on: 07/13/2006
Social Entrepreneurs: Correcting Market Failures
By Phillis, James A. & Lyn Denend, Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2005
This case examines the insights, aspirations, and impact of three leading social entrepreneurs, their organizations, and their efforts to correct a diverse array of classical market failures: • David Green, of Project Impact, who developed an innovative approach to manufacturing low-cost, high-quality medical supplies to treat and prevent blindness and deafness in the developing world; • Victoria Hale, of OneWorld Health, who worked to develop new medicines for infectious diseases that killed millions of people in the poorest parts of the world; • Jim Fruchterman, of Benetech, who created technology-based projects that ranged from reading machines for the blind to innovative software to protect information (and the people who collect it) in the human rights field.
>> More Details | created on: 04/03/2006
Serving the Poor: Do Embedded Ties Matter?
By Pablo Sánchez, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez & Joan Enric Ricart , IESE Business School, January 1, 2005
In the past, the 4.6 billion people living in poverty were considered anything but a market. Recently, however, several authors have suggested that by stimulating commerce and development in low-income segments, multinationals could radically improve the lives of billions of people and help create a more stable and inclusive world. In order to succeed at this challenging goal, companies need not only to innovate strategies, business models and products, but also to better understand the market and local customer needs.
>> More Details | created on: 04/18/2006
Combating "Hidden Hunger": Procter & Gamble takes up the fight
World Business Council on Sustainable Development, June 11, 2004
Procter and Gamble is taking up the fight against "hidden hunger" with NutriStar, a low cost powdered drink mix containing all the vital micronutrients growing children need.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Aravind Eye Care System, India
By C.K Prahalad, University of Michigan Ross School of Business, January 1, 2004
Discusses how a world class clinic in India has brought relatively free eye care treatment to the poor in India.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Businesses Are Helping to Overcome Global Poverty
By Stern N, Richard Ivey Business School, January 1, 2004
The facts today point to a decline in global poverty and to the reality that global economic development is working. These positive developments are due to policies pursued by both public organizations and the international business community. But as the Chief Economist of the World Banks says, business can do even more to help the world's poorest countries.
>> More Details | created on: 04/18/2006
Voxiva
By Cynthia Casas & William LaJoie, University of Michigan Ross School of Business, December 12, 2003
Voxiva is bringing critical healthcare information to rural villages by using the already in place telecommunications systems.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Hindustan Lever Limited , India
By Mindy Murch & Kate Reeder, University of Michigan Ross School of Business, December 12, 2003
Discusses how Hindustan Lever Limited created a unique public private partnership while simultaneously making a public helath issue an integral part of their business.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Jaipur Foot , India
By Scott Macke, University of Michigan Ross School of Business, December 12, 2003
Jaipur Foot has been able to create a low cost highly durable prosthetic foot that has enabled many of the poor in India to sustain their livlihoods inspite of a handicap.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Procter & Gamble – PuR Water Purification Sachets
World Business Council on Sustainble Development, October 21, 2003
A complementary approach to providing piped-treated water is through treatment of drinking water directly in people’s homes. This point of use (POU) model has the advantages of cost, immediate availability and ease of distribution to reach rural areas
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Afrique Initiatives, Senegal
By Luis Castro & Sharon Smith, World Resources Institute Digital Dividend, August 1, 2003
Analyzes the success two social development organizations in Senegal.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
HealthNet Uganda , Uganda
By Keisha Phipps & Genevieve Sangudi, Steven Woolway, World Resources Institute Digital Dividend, August 1, 2003
Analyzes Healthnet Uganda's evolution from NGO to sustainable enterprise but bringing portable healthcare service to Uganda's rural areas.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Corpomedina: Social and Economic Development, Venezuela
By Luis Sanz & Lawrence Pratt, World Resources Institute, 2000
As part of its strategy to develop tourism in an economically depressed zone of Venezuela, Corpomedina formed an independent foundation aimed at improving the quality of life for the local population through health, cultural, and educational programs, and through the creation of micro-enterprises.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Rick Surpin, United States
By Penelope Rowlands, David Bollier & Kirk O. Hanson, Business Enterprise Trust, January 1, 1992
A long-time community development worker creates hundreds of jobs for low-income women and minorities by forming a for-profit home health care cooperative, Cooperative Home Care Associates.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Academic Research
Fulfilling India's Promise
By Rajat K. Gupta, McKinsey Quarterly, 2005 (Subscription Required)
The article discusses how India must take steps to boost its economic prospects, lift its living standards, and improve opportunities for the multinational companies that do business there.
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
Pharma's Emerging Opportunity
By Farhad Riahi, McKinsey Quarterly, 2004 (Subscription Required)
Focusing on the diversity within emerging markets can help pharma companies serve them profitably.
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
How Businesses can Combat Global Disease
By Rajat K. Gupta & Lynn Taliento, McKinsey Quarterly, 2003 (Subscription Required)
The global health outlook is bleak. In 2002, more than six million people—most of them in poor countries—died from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria (exhibit). These three diseases, plus a handful of others, have crippled economic growth and progress in developing countries. This article thus discusses how and why MNCs should be involved in controlling global epidemics.
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
The Great Leap: Driving Innovation from the Base of the Pyramid
By Hart, Stu & Christensen, Clayton, MIT Sloan Management Review, September, 2002 (Fall 2002)
The authors illustrate their point of how and when BOP can be successful with examples of companies that are already profitably disrupting such industries as telecommunications, consumer electronics and energy production.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
By C.K. Prahalad & Stuart L. Hart, Strategy+Business, January, 2002 (Issue 26, First Quarter 2002)
Dispells some of the assumptions regarding selling to the poor and discusses how companies can both maximize their profits and help the poor
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Building Better Lives: Sustainable Integration of Microfinance and Education in Child Survival, Reproductive Health, and HIV/AIDS Prevention for the Poorest Entrepreneurs
By Christopher Dunford, Journal of Microfinance, Vol. 3, No. 2; , September, 2001
This paper provides diverse examples of microfinance institutions that have responded successfully to the challenge of integrating microfinance with nonfinancial services, without compromising the impacts or sustainability of their microfinance and overall operations. Special attention is given to the integration of microfinance with health education for very poor women, including the promotion of family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention management. The credit and education components reinforce each other by addressing the informational as well as the economic obstacles to health and nutrition.
>> More Details | created on: 01/24/2006
Vaccines Where They're Needed
By Amie Batson & Matthias M. Bekier, McKinsey Quarterly, 2001 (Subscription Required )
The development of vaccines for these diseases is usually a risky and unprofitable enterprise for pharmaceuticals companies. Thus, by assuming some of the risks borne by the makers of vaccines, governments and international organizations could reduce the cost of bringing them to market.
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
A Point of Light in Mumbai
By Rukmini Banerji & Madhav Chavan, et al, McKinsey Quarterly, 2001 (Subscription Required )
By developing a low-cost distribution channel, an Indian nonprofit organization can deliver child education and nutrition programs for just a few dollars a child per year.
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
India as a Source of Innovations
By C.K. Prahalad, 2000
Analyzes and the old mindset of the poor as an intractable problem and shows how currently there has been a shift in this mindset to one of the poor as an active market and the Bottom of the Pyramid as a source of innovation for this market.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Books
Business as a partner in strengthening public health systems in developing countries: an agenda for action
By Jane Nelson, International Business Leaders Forum [Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum], November 21, 2006
This report reviews the potential for business to contribute to public health systems in developing countries. The paper argues that while governments clearly have the overall responsibility for ensuring that health systems serve their populations more effectively, other partners, including the business community, can play a role.
>> More Details | created on: 11/21/2006
Improving health, connecting people: the role of ICTs in the health sector of developing countries
By Edited by Andrew Chetley; with contributions by Jackie Davies, Bernard Trude, Harry McConnell, Roberto Ramirez, T Shields, Peter Drury, J Kumekawa, J Louw, G Fereday, Caroline Nyamai-Kisia, BiD Network, May 31, 2006
This framework paper is aimed at policy makers who are involved in the development or management of programmes in the health sector in developing countries. It provides a ‘snapshot’ of the type of information and communication technology (ICT) interventions that are being used in the health sector, and the policy debates around ICTs and health. It draws from the experience of use in both the North and South, but with a focus on applicability in the South to identify the most effective and relevant uses of ICTs.
>> More Details | created on: 11/02/2006
Inequality and Poverty in Africa in an Era of Globalization: Looking Beyond Income to Health and Education
By David E. Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program Working Paper No. 194 , November 25, 2005
This paper describes changes over the past 15-20 years in non-income measures of wellbeing - education and health - in Africa.
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
Private Sector Strategies for Providing Healthcare at the Base of the Pyramid
By John Paul, World Resources Institute, November, 2005
The report highlights a number of innovative enterprises that leverage cross-sector partnerships to provide affordable healthcare to the poor.
>> More Details | created on: 02/03/2006
Capitalism at the Crossroads
By Stuart L. Hart, Wharton School Publishing, March 30, 2005
Global capitalism stands at a crossroads—facing international terrorism, worldwide environmental change, and an accelerating backlash against globalization. Today's global companies are at a crossroads, too: finding new strategies for profitable growth has never been more challenging. Both sets of problems are intimately linked, says Stuart L. Hart—and so are the solutions.
>> More Details | created on: 11/30/2005
The Business of Health - The Health of Business
WBCSD, 2005
Ill-health and disease impair business performance by hampering individuals, communities and markets. The examples gathered here serve to illustrate the business case for corporate action on health and demonstrate how companies can positively and imaginatively engage with these issues to create business advantages.
>> More Details | created on: 07/13/2006
Profits with Principles: Seven Strategies for Delivering Value with Values
By Ira Jackson & Jane Nelson, Currency, June 29, 2004
At a time when unethical business practices continue to dominate the business press, PROFITS WITH PRINCIPLES offers persuasive proof that when businesses combine profit making with a concern for values and the greater good, they do better in the marketplace than those that concentrate only on the bottom line.
>> More Details | created on: 02/14/2008
Raising the Bar: Creating Value with the United Nations Global Compact
By Claude Fussler (editor) & Aron Cramer, et al, Greenleaf Publishing, 2004
Raising the Bar, produced by a unique team of business experts and UN agencies, is designed to fill a critical vide - poches the support of more than 1,000 organisations for the globally recognised Principles of the United Nations Global Compact and the need for this support to be translated into the day-to-day running of business to create value and improve performance.
>> More Details | created on: 11/30/2005
How to Change the World: Social Enrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas
By David Bornstein, Oxford University Press, December 1, 2003
What business entrepreneurs are to the economy, social entrepreneurs are to social change. They are, writes David Bornstein, the driven, creative individuals who question the status quo, exploit new opportunities, refuse to give up--and remake the world for the better.
>> More Details | created on: 11/30/2005
Development as Freedom
By Amartya Sen, Anchor Books, August 15, 2000
Development as Freedom is a general exposition of the economic ideas and analyses of Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Science. This brilliant and indispensable treatise compellingly analyzes the nature of contemporary economic development from the perspective of human freedom. Freedom, Sen persuasively argues, is at once the ultimate goal of economic life and the most efficient means of realizing general welfare. It is a good to be enjoyed by the world's entire population. Drawing on moral and political philosophy and technical economic analysis, this work gives the nonspecialist reader powerful access to Sen's paradigm-altering vision and vividly shows how he, in the words of the Nobel Prize committee, has both "restored an ethical dimension to the discussion of economic problems" and "opened up new fields of study for subsequent generations of researchers."
>> More Details | created on: 11/30/2005
Cost Sharing and Access to Health Care for the Poor: Equity Experiences in Tanzania
By William Newbrander & Stephen Sacca, USAID Bur. for Africa Ofc. of Sustainable Development, August, 1996
>> View Article | created on: 02/13/2006
Access of the poor to health care in Ecuador: Experiences with User Fee Schemes
By David H. Collins & Mercy Balarezo, USAID Bur. for Africa Ofc. of Sustainable Development, March, 1996
>> View Article | created on: 02/13/2006
Business as Partners in Development: Creating Wealth for Countries, Companies, and Communities
The International Business Leaders Forum, 1996
Published in collaboration with the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, this publication is aimed at every level of an organisation, and seeks to stimulate consideration of the new way of doing business. In the context of three billion people rapidly taking their place in market economies, the private sector has become the principal motor of development and a growth-test of economic strength.
>> More Details | created on: 11/30/2005