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New Initiative Encouraging Indian Diaspora to Invest Launched
A new investment initiative, announced by President Barack Obama during his New Delhi visit early this year, that makes it easier for the Indian diaspora to invest in small and medium businesses in India has been launched here.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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National Payments System in the Works in the Philippines
The framework for the envisioned national retail payments system (NRPS) could be ready by next month, a BancNet official said, in a bid to roll out the system by next year as the financial industry aims to have an integrated cashless network in the next three to five years.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- digital payments
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Overcoming Assumptions and Prejudices to Forge a Network of Self Reliance: Why Zidisha targets young, tech-savvy entrepreneurs with loans
The nonprofit Zidisha built a different kind of micro-lending platform: One that is peer-to-peer, transparent and caters to entrepreneurs who came of age during the Internet era. In part two of our interview with CEO Julia Kurnia we discuss how Zidisha maintains its borrower-friendly focus, differentiates itself from other lending networks, and holds steadfast to the idea that loans are better than cash transfers.
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- Uncategorized
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Weekly Roundup 10-9-15 : Exits and Entrances: Two reports shed light on getting out and getting into impact enterprises
To capitalize on the chatter and excitement around impact investing that the Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) conference creates, many organizations and companies made announcements and issued reports this week. Here are two biggies that caught our eye.
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- Uncategorized
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- impact investing
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From Interior Design to Microfinance in South Sudan
On a warm afternoon in this dirt-road town, 34-year-old Missy Williams sits on a plastic chair beneath a thatched roof in the center of a bustling market.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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- lending, microfinance
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Mastercard, Singapore Management University Set Up New Financial Inclusion Program
MasterCard and Singapore Management University (SMU) have announced their partnership in a new Social and Financial Inclusion Programme spanning over two years to catalyse research on social entrepreneurship, innovation and financial inclusion.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Live from SOCAP15 : Quotes, tweets and nugget-sized insights from the first full day
More than 2,700 people are attending the eighth annual SOCAP – which describes itself as “the largest conference in the world that is mixing the people who want to use business to change the world for good with the people who invest and make that happen” – in San Francisco this year. Here's a smattering of quotes and tweets gathered by NextBillion.
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- Uncategorized
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- impact investing
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Microlending Peer to Peer … and Back Again: After six years, Zidisha CEO presses for low-debt loans, high transparency
Many have called for more transparency and increased accountability in microcredit - and raised concerns about the often high cost of microloans to poor recipients. Since it was founded six years ago, the nonprofit Zidisha has sought to address these issues by providing a direct connection between lenders and entrepreneurs. CEO Julia Kurnia discusses the model and its challenges in part one of this Q&A.
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- Uncategorized
- Tags
- crowdfunding
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