Articles by Tara Thiagarajan
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Monday
November 6
2017Something Doesn’t Add Up: Improving Basic Math Skills Among Microentrepreneurs in Rural India
Running any business requires a basic knowledge of arithmetic. Entrepreneurs need to calculate change due on a sale, profits and loss, commissions on product sales, and interest rates on loans. If they can't, their business will likely struggle. As part of a study to identify whether basic math skills contribute to entrepreneurial success in rural India, Madura Microfinance assessed the numerical capabilities of microentrepreneurs. The results were surprising – and somewhat alarming.
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- Education
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Friday
May 12
2017The High Cost of ‘Data Darkness’ in the Developing World
The developing world is data dark, writes Tara Thiagarajan of Madura Microfinance; gathering even the most elementary data is a monumental task, requiring feet on the ground, paid employees and auditing systems. Without it, however, products don’t have good market fit, customers don’t get what they really need and the cost of customer acquisition and delivery is higher.
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