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Cashless in India: 50 days’ journey of a fintech professional
Are you sure you want to do this? Richa, my wife asked as I shared my idea to undertake an experiment in which I will stop using cash and instead use only digital forms of payment. Colleagues said going cashless in India is difficult and that I wouldn’t be able to manage more than a week. All this and the fundamental question “As a believer in digitization of cash, am I just propagating the theory or do I really understand the consumer side of story?” With this started the quest to understand “Cashlessness” first hand.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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India’s Practo Plans to Take Digital Health-Care Success Abroad
Practo Technologies Private Ltd.’s audacious goal of bringing order to India’s chaotic health-care system is starting to bear fruit, helping to transform it into the country’s biggest online medical network. Now the startup is planning to go global.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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How can South Africa drive youth innovation and entrepreneurship?
Nearly a third of South Africa’s population is under the age of 14. As things stand, their future is uncertain. The economy is stagnant, the political landscape is shifting, and unemployment is at a record high. It’s possible to turn all that around, but doing so means equipping young people with skills beyond those found in the schooling system creating an environment which doesn’t just see entrepreneurship and innovation as viable options, but as necessities.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- innovation
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A Kenyan startup is showing global businesses how to talk to their customers
Ongair, a Nairobi-based startup, says instant messaging could and should replace the traditional channels of customer service—frustrating phone calls, inefficient e-mail exchanges, online chats that don’t work well on a smartphone, or SMS messages that costs businesses per text.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Diagnosis App Scoops Africa Health Prize
An app that allows rural doctors to seek advice remotely from experts won Africa's first prize recognising new technology that boosts health on the continent.
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- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Ericsson to develop ‘Emergency Wallet’ for humanitarian aid
Ericsson has committed to developing Ericsson Emergency Wallet, a mobile financial services solution, for deployment in the immediate aftermath of disaster or crises to support humanitarian organizations and affected populations.
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- Technology
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Report: Off-Grid Electricity, Mobile Money Could Help Plug Africa’s Rural Power Crunch
A combination of renewable energy sources off the national grids could be a solution to supplying electricity to rural areas across Africa, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed on Monday.
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- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Unified Payment Interface Will Be the Next Big Thing in Mobile Banking in India
Mobile payments just got a leg-up, thanks to the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), probably the only app of its kind in the world. Virtual wallet services have been around for a while now. UPI goes a step further and allows you to make payments by simply entering the payee's virtual ID on your smartphone and feeding the PIN the app requests. The money is debited directly from your account and transferred to the payee in a matter of minutes, without you having to provide either your bank details or the payee's bank IFSC code. In a few simple steps you can make transactions worth up to a lakh. The app on your phone need not be of the bank you hold your account in, but of any bank whose user experience you prefer. The same goes for the payee. But the transactions still take place between the underlying banks, without you even knowing about it. No need to worry about your credit card details being compromised.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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