Brazil’s economic growth among the emerging markets of BRIC has often been overshadowed by that of China and India but recent news puts it firmly back in the spotlight. From the Guardian’s exuberant report,

Brazil’s currency recently hit a nine-year-high against the dollar, inflation is under control and millions of Brazilians are being propelled towards a new middle class. Last week, meanwhile, Brazil was awarded “investment grade” status by the financial rating agency Standard & Poor’s, sending the country’s stocks soaring to an all-time high.

Following the announcement, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said: “If we translate this into a language that the Brazilian people understand, it means that Brazil was declared a serious country, that has serious policies, that takes care of its finances with seriousness and because of this we deserve international confidence.”
 

In many of Africa’s towns and villages, smoky kerosene lamps are all that keeps the darkness at bay after sunset. However, kerosene is a dangerous and increasingly expensive source of light for Africans who do not have access to electricity — about three-quarters of those living on the continent, according to the World Bank. The Lighting Africa 2008 conference just took place in Accra, Ghana last week and among other renewable energy solutions was an innovative use of soil to generate electric power by a team of African students from Harvard.
 

Imagine if India’s largest mobile phone operator were to join forces with Africa’s? The Economist hints that Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel maybe in just such exploratory talks with MTN of South Africa. While Vodafone’s Arun Sarin denies all rumours of considering a competing bid, keep in mind that Mittal had denied them too just last week. Regardless, it seems to point the way to a global convergence that goes beyond the humble handset.
 

The OLPC (One Laptop per Child or the $100 laptop) has been much discussed of late particularly since it may not be ‘open source’ anymore. Teemu Leinonen takes a step back from the PC/software paradigm and explores alternate approaches to education while Jon Camfield discusses an entirely new approach to its distribution. Calling it the bottom of the pyramid approach which is less top down and more focused on the end users themselves, Camfield poses an insightful question,

That’s all well and good, but it continues an assumption that I’m trying to open up for debate — is the educational system the best way to distribute the OLPC XO laptops to create sustained development? What would the the OLPC project turn into if changed to a technology-diffusion, bottom of the pyramid approach with the overall goal of improving communities by closing the “digital divide”?
 

EMweekly (previous editions) is a compilation on Emerging Markets news by Niti Bhan and David Tait (of the Emerging Futures Lab).

EMweekly focuses on a wide ranging selection of news, links and articles as well as analysis and in-depth stories from the developing world. You can read it on Putting People First, or receive the EMweekly via rss or email.

The emerging market news update reflects Experientia’s extended research and experience design capabilities in emerging consumer markets in developing nations such as in Sub Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia etc.

This new offering is founded upon a recent structural collaboration between Experientia and three emerging market specialists — Niti Bhan (based in Singapore), Claude Martin (based in France), and David Tait (based in South Africa) — and an extensive research project in Africa we just completed for a major technology company.