Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Poor people – at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) – represent a very attractive market opportunity. The ‘BOP proposition’ argues that selling to the poor can simultaneously be profitable and help eradicate poverty. This is at best a harmless illusion and potentially a dangerous delusion. This paper shows that the BOP argument is riddled with fallacies, and proposes an alternative perspective on how the private sector can help alleviate poverty. Rather than focusing on the poor as consumers, we need to view the poor as producers. The only way to alleviate poverty is to raise the real income of the poor.Poverty; Bottom of the pyramid; Selling to the poor; social responsibility

Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Poor people -- at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) -- represent a very attractive market opportunity. The ‘BOP proposition’ argues that selling to the poor can simultaneously be profitable and help eradicate poverty. This is at best a harmless illusion and potentially a dangerous delusion. This paper shows that the BOP argument is riddled with fallacies, and proposes an alternative perspective on how the private sector can help alleviate poverty. Rather than focusing on the poor as consumers, we need to view the poor as producers. The only way to alleviate poverty is to raise the real income of the poor.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57215/1/wp835 .pd

Corporate Social Responsibility Does Not Avert the Tragedy of the Commons - Case Study: Coca-Cola India

'Tragedy of the commons' is a powerful concept to analyze a variety of problems related to environmental sustainability. The commons problem can be solved if individuals behave altruistically. In the business context, this article studies the proposition that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can avert the tragedy of the commons by examining one case study in depth: Coca-Cola's bottling operations in Rajasthan, India. In spite of choosing a context favorable to the proposition, the results indicate that CSR does not avert the tragedy of the commons. To address the major environmental challenges, it is essential to develop regulatory regimes with appropriate incentives and ability to enforce sanctions.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90509/1/1173_Karnani.pd

Climate Change and Economic Development: A Pragmatic Approach (Invited Lecture)

Two major problems promise to dominate economic and social policy during the twentyfirst century. These are global climate change and the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Economists are facing these issues at a time when many of the standard tools of economic analysis for example, competitive general equilibrium and the theoretical system that supports it have fallen into disfavour in analysing global issues involving uncertainty and irreversibility. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for development economics. This paper first examines economic models of human development and climate change, drawing, where possible, on the situation in Pakistan. We then outline an approach to coping with climate change based on new perspectives in behavioural and development economics, and on the likely consequences of global warming for Pakistan. We focus on adaptation to climate change rather than on mitigation strategies.

Orthopaedic trauma and an aging population : a retrospective review of factors influencing outcomes [abstract]

Orthopaedic trauma outcomes are largely dependent upon mechanism of injury. However, elderly patients often sustain lower energy trauma, but have worse outcomes. Studies have shown that elderly patients are more likely to have longer lengths of stay, spend more time in ICU, and that preexisting medical comorbidities significantly increase mortality. The purpose of this study is to investigate if age is associated with outcomes in trauma patients at the University of Missouri

Input-to-State Stabilization in H1H^1-Norm for Boundary Controlled Linear Hyperbolic PDEs with Application to Quantized Control

International audienceWe consider a system of linear hyperbolic PDEs where the state at one of the boundary points is controlled using the measurements of another boundary point. For this system class, the problem of designing dynamic controllers for input-to-state stabilization in $H^1$-norm with respect to measurement errors is considered. The analysis is based on constructing a Lyapunov function for the closed-loop system which leads to controller synthesis and the conditions on system dynamics required for stability. As an application of this stability notion, the problem of quantized control for hyperbolic PDEs is considered where the measurements sent to the controller are communicated using a quantizer of finite length. The presence of quantizer yields practical stability only, and the ultimate bounds on the norm of the state trajectory are also derived

On Stability of Measure Driven Differential Equations

International audienceWe consider the problem of stability in a class of differential equations which are driven by a differential measure associated with the inputs of locally bounded variation. After discussing some existing notions of solution for such systems, we derive conditions on the system's vector fields for asymptotic stability under a specific class of inputs. These conditions present a trade-off between the Lebesgue-integrable and the measure-driven components of the system. In case the system is not asymptotically stable, we derive weaker conditions such that the norm of the resulting trajectory is bounded by some function of the total variation of the input, which generalizes the notion of integral input-to-state stability in measure-driven systems

Indigenous Uses of Some Important Ethnomedicinal Herbs of Ayubia National Park, Abbottabad, Pakistan

This paper is based on the results of an ethno botanical research project conducted in Ayubia National Park. The people of the park have always used the medicinal herbs for various ailments and are dependent on the plants in their surroundings for food, shelter, health, medicines, fodder and various cultural purposes. A total of 21 important herbs belonging to 19 Families were recorded which were used medicinally by the local inhabitants. About 100 informants were interviewed in this regard. The precious ethno botanical knowledge is disappearing very fast, so this study could be helpful in conserving the precious knowledge. Podophyllum emodi Wall. ex Royle and Viola canescens Wall. ex Roxb. are found vulnerable to harvesting