While political dynamics differ greatly from one place to another, rural areas continue to have legitimate grievances. Poverty in rural areas is both more prevalent and more acute than in urban areas - about 80 per cent of the world's extremely poor people live in rural areas.

Development economists have considered physical infrastructure to be a precondition for industrialization and economic development. Yet, two issues remain to be addressed in the literature. First, while proper identification of the causal effectiveness of infrastructure in reducing poverty is...

Undoubtedly, poverty reduction has become a front-burner issue in development and business agenda. Since its announcement and defense by its advocates as a potent weapon against poverty, the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) concept has been bedeviled by controversies. A major controversy is whether...

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Development of MSMEs and Their Main Constraints -- Chapter 3: Internationalization -- Chapter 4: Women Entrepreneurs -- Chapter 5: MSMEs in Times of Economic Crisis Chapter 6: Development of Financial Technology with Reference to Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending...