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E-Wallets catching on in India
In a rush to board a train in time, Shivani Bhargava, a 19-year-old Delhi University student from Mumbai, ends up in a tight spot after she forgets her wallet at home. After getting down at the station in Delhi, she has to book a cab and reach her hostel at the earliest, but doesn’t have the cash or cards to do so. Enter Meru Cabs’ ‘cab wallet’. All she does is tap her mobile app and, voila, the payment is made. “Not only did I reach my hostel safely, but I also got a 30% discount,” says Bhargava.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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What Alibaba Is Getting With Its $575 Million Investment In Paytm
Alibaba Group and its financial-services affiliate Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group’s planned $575 million investment in the online-payment and marketplace businesses of India’s One97 Communications called Paytm will be the Chinese company’s first major investment in India’s fast-growing e-commerce industry. A deal between the two companies will open the floodgates for large amount of cross-border trade between India and China. Here’s what you need to know about Paytm.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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The Real Magic of Carpets: Transforming 28,000 Lives With $200
One man’s idea to double salaries and let artisans work from home has created a positive ripple effect across five states in India.
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- Impact Assessment
- Region
- South Asia
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Capitalism Begins at Home
Joseph Schumpeter argued that the miracle of capitalism lies in democratising wealth. Elizabeth I owned silk stockings, he observed, but the “capitalist achievement” does not lie in “providing more silk stockings for queens but in bringing them within reach of factory girls.” In most areas of life this miracle has been working magnificently: in America the number of hours of work that it takes to buy a car, or a wardrobe full of clothes, has halved in the past generation. But in three big areas it has singularly failed to operate: health care, education and housing.
- Categories
- Education
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Weavers Turn Silk Into Diabetes Test Strips
It's a new way to do silk screening, that's for sure. Bangalore-based Achira Labs has figured out a way to hand weave diabetes test strips from silk. That sounds pretty luxurious compared to the standard materials of plastic or paper. But silk turns out to have several advantages in a country like India, where weavers who can work a handloom are abundant and the material is readily available and inexpensive.
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Tailor-Made Vaccine Set to Banish Africa’s Meningitis Epidemics
The website of a global partnership formed to wipe out deadly meningitis epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa is closing down with a simple message: "Thank you and goodbye!".
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Social Stock Exchanges – Do We Need Them?
Public interest in the development of global impact investing received a significant boost last year, due to an international campaign to divest in fossil fuels by superannuation, pension, and university endowment funds.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- impact investing
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Microcapital Brief: Investview Acquires Gate Global Impact, Gateway 2.0 Will Continue to Link Social Enterprises, Funders
Gate Global Impact (GGI), a US-based, regulatory-compliant electronic marketplace that focuses on impact investing, has been acquired by Investview, another US-based financial services company [1]. As part of the deal, Investview has also acquired GGI’s Gateway 2.0, a website that enables small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) listed on the United Nation’s Global Compact Social Enterprise Hub to access financing for projects intended to produce a financial return while addressing challenges relating to “human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.” Investview intends to continue operating the platform through GGI. Mr Vincent Molinari, the chief executive officer of GGI, and Mr Joseph Latona, president of GGI, will join Investview. The financial details of the deal have not been made public.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- impact investing
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