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How Blockchains Could Revolutionize International Aid
It’s this sort of problem–a lack of traceability in aid–that encouraged Thompson to develop a system to transfer and track international development payments. AID:Tech is one of several startups working with blockchain technology, trying to ensure more funds go where they’re supposed to go. “Transparency is really needed in aid and welfare payments because there’s not a functioning system that works globally,” he says.
- Categories
- Technology
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Bridging financial inclusion with technology is key
Sonny Singh, Senior VP and GM of Oracle's Financial Services Global Business Unit, tells Anup Jayaram how the company is helping facilitate digital banking in India.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Q&A: Rajeev Venkayya on why vaccines are a worthy investment
Venkayya has seen vaccines from every angle. Before launching Takeda’s global vaccine business five years ago, he served as senior director for biodefense at the White House and director of global health delivery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The success of vaccines going forward, he says, requires public and policy support for investments “to make sure that we're driving strong immunization coverage everywhere but also investing in new vaccines for the diseases that should be vaccine preventable,” he said.- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health, vaccines
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MIT in search of Africa’s most innovative entrepreneurs
According to the MIT Legatum Centre, the Open Mic Africa program seeks to find and showcase Africa's top innovators while developing a dialogue among local entrepreneurs, investors and MIT.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- innovation
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CleanCapital Closes $4 Million Series A To Make Institutional Investors See Green
“By streamlining the acquisition of high quality, clean energy projects, CleanCapital is able to pass through the benefits to its investors,” said Patelli in a release.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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There are too many e-wallets in India and most are near-empty
While the Indian e-wallet industry’s size stood at an estimated Rs154 crore in 2015-16, it is expected to zoom to Rs30,000 crore by the end of 2021-22. And everyone, from financial technology companies to banks to the government-backed National Payments Corporation of India, is scrambling for a share of that pie.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Kiva.org Reaches $1 Billion Milestone in Crowd-Funding Loans Disbursed Globally
Kiva provides financial support to low-income borrowers, enabling individuals from all over the globe who have few other opportunities for financial assistance to receive a critically needed loan.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- microfinance
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The Race to Solar-Power Africa
The spread of cell phones in the region has made it possible for residents to pay daily or weekly bills using mobile money, and now the hope is that, just as cell phones bypassed the network of telephone lines, solar panels will enable many rural consumers to bypass the electric grid. From Ghana, I travelled to Ivory Coast, and then to Tanzania, and along the way I encountered a variety of new solar ventures, most of them American-led. Some, such as Ghana’s Black Star Energy, which had electrified Daban, install solar microgrids, small-scale versions of the giant grid Americans are familiar with. Others, such as Off-Grid Electric, in Tanzania and Ivory Coast, market home-based solar systems that run on a panel installed on each individual house.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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