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India Lags Peers in Its Bid Towards a Cashless Economy
The past couple of years have seen a number of initiatives to facilitate cashless transactions in the Indian economy, including the launch of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) earlier this year. Such moves may raise the volume of cashless transactions in India in the years to come but the latest available internationally comparable data shows why moving towards a cashless economy remains a Herculean challenge for the country.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Revolutionary SA e-Health Innovation hearScreen Goes Global
South African e-health startup hearScreen, which has developed a smartphone app detects hearing loss and links patients to health services, is active in more than 25 countries across the world and planning on expanding to a further 15 by the end of next year.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Microfinance: Your Inflexible Friend
ON A shelf in Buland Iqbal’s tiny roadside shop, cassette tapes are slowly turning pale in the sun. Nobody wants them these days, even in a dusty suburb in one of India’s poorest states. So Mr Iqbal has branched out. First he moved into renting DVDs, then, more boldly, into pay-television. A loan of 31,000 rupees ($465) from Sonata, a microfinance firm, helped him acquire a few satellite dishes and decoder boxes. It seems like a clear-cut success for microlending. In fact, Mr Iqbal’s loan illustrates why microlending does not work all that well, and how it needs to change.
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- fintech, microfinance
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Asian Development Bank partners with Citi to provide US$100 million for microfinance in Asia
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has entered into an agreement with Citi to expand local currency lending to the microfinance sector under the Microfinance Risk Participation and Guarantee Program.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Survey: Multiple microloans making borrowers highly indebted in Indonesia
Fifty-nine percent of micro borrowers may be indebted as they face difficulties managing their finances to repay their mounting loans, according to a recent survey conducted in four cities in West Java.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Cisco, Narayana Health Team Up to Protect Data in Telemedicine Services
As digital transformation brings more users, devices and applications online, corporates and even hospitals are struggling to protect malware attacks.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Siemens Stiftung Announces Winners of the Empowering People Award
Global contest awards 200,000 Euros prize money to most innovative low-tech solutions that sustainably help improve lives in developing countries.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Mobile Transactions Market to Exceed $500 Billion By 2018
The value of domestic money transfers, including operator money and social media money services, will reach $520 billion in global mobile transactions by 2018, up nearly 200% from an estimated $178 billion last year.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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