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This Indonesian Microfinance Startup Wants to Put Loan Sharks Out of Business
In Indonesia, 203 million people are classified as poor, living on less than US$4.50 per day. This group of consumers is not the section of the economic pyramid that conventional banks and insurance companies tend to prioritize, despite their making up the majority of the archipelago’s population. This is a problem Aidil Zulkifli, co-founder and CEO of UangTeman, hopes to solve.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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100 Small Steps: Will India’s Bank Licenses Bring Reform?
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been steadily reforming India’s financial sector, in addition to achieving notable monetary policy successes. A few weeks back, the RBI granted licenses to 11 payments banks and followed that with licenses to 10 smallfinance banks.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Retail Chains Sign Up Mobile Wallets in India
Last week, retail chain Shoppers Stop Ltd tied up with mobile wallet FreeCharge, allowing customers to use FreeCharge wallets to make payments across 74 Shoppers Stop outlets, 17 HyperCity stores, 95 Crossword outlets, 19 HomeStop stores, and its online marketplace.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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- digital payments
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Making Leeway for Generating Greater Impact in Eastern India
The Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I3N) has announced a partnership with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) to facilitate the creation of a powerful ecosystem for entrepreneurship development in Eastern India. This partnership with IIMCIP furthers I3N’s commitment and ability to generate impact in Eastern India.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Collectives Help Rural Women ‘Lean In’
In the world of microfinance, women’s collectives have acquired a great deal of prominence globally and are known by various names such as Self Help Groups (SHGs), Joint Liability Groups (JLG), or Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLA). There is a strongly held belief that the formation of these groups has transformed the lives of women, improving their financial status due to the direct links between the microcredit, obtained through the group, and the livelihood activities financed by this credit.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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- microfinance
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Tata Communications and MasterCard Join Forces to Empower 100 Million Women
At the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting closing plenary, Tata Communicationsand MasterCard announced a CGI Commitment to Action to financially empower 25,000 women in the developing world, part of a larger vision to ultimately reach 100 million women. The global telecommunications leader and the leader in global payments technology join forces with a unique network of partners including Brightstar Corp, Kiva, Tone, Trickle Up and the Hidary Foundation to bring their shared vision to life over the next five years through access to transformative mobile platforms comprising a range of financial, health and education applications and services.
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- Uncategorized
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This Guy Makes Hipster Shoes in Africa, but Don’t Call Him a Social Entrepreneur
When he was 24, Tal Dehtiar found himself on a bus with a gun at his head. He was hitchhiking through South America at the time, fresh off of graduating from business school. It was while on a bus in Brazil that a gunman boarded, demanding that everyone hand over their belongings.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Why the UN Sustainable Development Goals are a business opportunity
Over the weekend, Paul Polman, the CEO of Unilever, won an award at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. Part of the reason he won the award is a program run by Unilever in India to encourage handwashing.
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- Uncategorized
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