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India Plans Health Scheme to Save $121 Billion Every Year
A national level program to eradicate blindness is being running across India since 1976 but corruption and inadequate government funding failed to improve the situation.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Microloan approvals done in 7 minutes, not 7 days in India
Bharat Financial Inclusion, India's second-largest microfinance company, has linked its credit systems to the national database to speed up cheaper financing to those at the margins.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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PesaLink is no threat to M-Pesa, says Safaricom
The planned launch of interbank mobile money transfer system next month by commercial banks will not slow down revenues from Safaricom's M-Pesa, chief executive Bob Collymore has said. He says a significant number of close to 25 million customers on its money-minting machine, M-Pesa, will not be swayed by PesaLink because they do not hold conventional bank accounts.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Impact businesses in India are attracting investments with healthy returns
Businesses that tap a large number of customers in the lower-income bracket and are established with a clear social objective are increasingly becoming an attractive asset class in India, as they are globally. In India, while rural micro-credit, and then urban microfinance, saw growth and success over the last two decades, these businesses are now coming to the fore in a growing number of verticals and catching serious investor interest.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Calls from rivals for higher charges by Safaricom rejected
Proposals by Airtel and Telkom Kenya that could have seen Safaricom forced to charge its customers higher rates than its rival telecommunications providers have been rejected by consultants hired to assess competition in the sector.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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De-Mythifying Financial Education
Many organizations have discovered that it's difficult to bring comprehensive and sustainable financial capability to the BoP. Recognizing that financial education is complex and influenced by the clients' environment, MicroSave has developed a framework for those planning interventions, including four key lessons that should be at the forefront of any design.
- Categories
- Education
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Why Omidyar Network is Excited About Technology Stacks for Financial Inclusion
There are a lot of buzzwords out there when it comes to technology, so we try not to get caught up with each new fad. But everywhere we look, we see a concept that promises to be a powerful driver of not only innovation, but also economic progress: technology stacks.
- Categories
- Technology
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National Payments Corporation of India begins pilot project to digitize transactions in microfinance sector
Under the project, RBL Bank will disburse loans and HDFC Bank will receive loan repayments for the transactions of Svatantra Microfinance using Aadhaar and USSD based facilities.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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