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Where Science, Schools, and Social Entrepreneurship Meet
In a small workshop, hidden away on Pune’s NDA road, a demonstration is under way. A supervisor draws diagrams on a white-board, watched closely by a group of four or five employees. Shelves line the walls, displaying a variety of science models on bases made of black acrylic fibre; more acrylic sheets are stacked to one side; a DC motor vies for space with a conductivity tester, a beam balance and a large yellow plastic ball (intended to explain how the human retina functions). All told, this workshop produces 81 such models, covering around 540 concepts of science for students from the third to the tenth grade.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Mobile Phones Help Kenyans to Stay Healthier
The exponential growth of mobile telephony in Kenya has seen changes not only in communication but healthcare as well.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Amazon Launches Amazon Pay Balance in Bid to Increase Cashless Transactions in India
Amazon India on Friday launched its online wallet Amazon Pay Balance, in a bid to increase cashless orders.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Digital Payment Startups in India Unaware of High Security Risks
As India embraces a cashless economy, there has been a sudden spurt in new mobile wallet companies — but most of these start-ups are setting up digital shops without knowing the cyber risks involved, a top executive from US-based cyber security firm FireEye has emphasised.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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How Paytm is brazenly piggybacking on banks and telcos in India
It should be galling for telecom service providers like Airtel and Vodafone to find Paytm (used as a metaphor for mobile wallet service providers) using the mobile numbers of their customers to provide mobile wallet services to them.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Ghana telco MTN in talks with banks to offer microcredit to SMEs
Mobile telephony giants MTN has said it will from next year partner some financial institutions to provide microcredit to small and medium-scale enterprises.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A startup in Kenya is launching “Uber for ambulances”
In Nairobi, most things can be ordered from your phone—an Uber, or taxi from one of several other taxi hailing app companies, a boda boda driver to run an errand for you on his bike, and dinner from a restaurant across town or just groceries from down the street. Soon, Nairobians will also be able order an ambulance from their phones.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Demonetisation: How to Get Cash-Stuck Microfinance Institutions Digitally Ready in India
The overnight demonetisation of R500 and R1,000 currency notes shook the entire Indian economy, for good or bad is yet uncertain. An estimated 85% of the value of currency has ceased to be a legal tender and the release of the new currency has been rationed for the next few months. Such a move from the government will most likely put a check on black money circulation in medium- to long-term, however, it will also impact businesses in the short-run given the fact that more than 90% of the consumer payments in India still happen in cash. The move is also expected to be a boon for digital financial services ecosystem in India. While the penetration of digital payments infrastructure has rapidly increased in the last two years, the value of consumer payments that happen through cards or other digital means in India is still far behind some of the other comparable economies. The point-of-sale terminals per 100,000 debits cards are lower in India compared to other BRIC nations (India-2; Russia-6.1; China-12.5; Brazil-14.8).
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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