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Coworking in India Means Sharing More Than Just a Desk
From taxi drivers to tech innovators, the Indian freelance economy has exploded in recent years. An estimated 15 million freelancers currently operate in the country, making India second only to the United States in terms of independent workers. As Indians break out of traditional employment, they’re breaking out of traditional workplaces, too — and in their stead, creative coworking spaces are thriving.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Weekly Roundup: Nano Lending Under the Microsope and A Bond to Fight Diabetes
This week Tigo announced it will launch collateral-free nano loans to customers through its Tigo Pesa mobile financial platform in Tanzania. The unsecured loans will average $10,000 Tanzanian shillings (US $5). Is this the lift "nano lending" needs? Plus, Israel begins a new social impact bond to fight diabetes, what it could mean for financing global health.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Tags
- mobile finance
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Why Apple and Samsung Have Already Lost the Mobile Payments War in China
If you’re a smartphone company – even a big, successful one – looking to get into the Chinese market with your own mobile payments system, here’s a piece of advice: don’t.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Drone Delivery Could Give Africa’s HIV-Positive Babies a Fighting Chance at Survival
A small white drone programmed to go back and forth between hospital labs and rural health clinics in Malawi could drastically cut down on the cost and waiting time of testing African children for HIV.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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M-Pesa Shows Why Mobile Money Is Yet to Realize Its True Potential in Africa
Last November, “60 Minutes”, the flagship news magazine show on US television network CBS, ran a whole segment on M-Pesa, the mobile money service which was started in Kenya nine years ago by Safaricom, the country’s largest mobile phone company. It was a great moment for Kenyan innovation, being featured on prime time television for millions of Americans who were likely hearing about M-Pesa for the first time.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Tech Entrepreneurs Boost Microfinance Startup Zidisha
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and a handful of other tech entrepreneurs and companies have donated a total of $525,000 to microfinance startup Zidisha, which hopes to bring down costs of peer-to-peer lending to cash-strapped young entrepreneurs in the developing world by getting rid of intermediaries.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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ICICI Bank Launches India’s First Contactless Mobile Payment Solution
ICICI Bank today unveiled a contactless mobile payment solution, which it claims to be first of its kind in India. As per ICICI, this payment solution enables its credit and debit customers make in-store contactless payments by just waving their smartphones near an NFC-enabled merchant terminal. This mobile payment solution has been launched today for the employees of the bank and will be available for its customers in the last week of March when the updated 'Pockets' application will be available on Google Play Store. An ICICI Bank credit and debit customer (VISA/Mastercard) with an NFC enabled smartphones of Android 4.4 OS & above will be able to use this solution.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- fintech
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Mobile Data Has the Answers, But First, We Need to Ask the Right Questions
I’ve realized that when guiding social enterprises, nonprofits and international NGOs to begin using data, it’s helpful to focus on a key, sometimes obvious point: data has to actually answer a critical business or programmatic question. Mobile data collection for the sake of collecting data isn’t enough.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise, Technology
- Tags
- research
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