Inbrief

Dutch electronics company Philips is to support a project to develop and then market technology that will bring lighting to the world’s 1.6 billion people without access to electricity. It will work with corporate and civil society partners on the International Finance Corporation’s Lighting the Bottom of the Pyramid scheme. This assists the private sector in developing a commercially viable way of providing lighting not dependent on fuel-based devices such as expensive and environmentally damaging kerosene lamps. Gerard Kleisterlee, Philips chief executive, said: ‘Finding the right business model for this kind of thing is often as challenging as finding the right technology.’