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Brics countries must climb the value chain to be big brands
Two concepts — Bric, an economic and investment concept, and bottom of the pyramid (BoP), a business philosophy concept — changed the relation between rich and poor countries, the structure of organisations, and delivery of products and services in the last decade. One would not have been successful without the other.
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India is polio free, but faces threat of virus from Pakistan
India is all geared up to be tagged ‘polio-free,’ in February by the Indian Government after not a single case of polio was reported in the past three years within the country’s boundaries. At this juncture, World Health Organization (WHO) country head, Dr Nata Menabde speaks to Maitri Porecha and Santosh Andhale about the intricacies involved in tackling the crippling challenge of polio.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Quick test finds signs of diarrheal disease
Bioengineers at Rice University and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston have developed a simple, highly sensitive and efficient test for the diarrheal disease cryptosporidiosis that could have great impact on global health.
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- Education, Health Care
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Dengue and West Nile vaccines come closer to reality
Scientists have discovered a key aspect to how the dengue and West Nile viruses replicate in the cells of their host and how they manipulate the immune system as they spread.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
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African mobile phone leaders take action to expand financial inclusion
The 2nd African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative (AMPI) Leaders Roundtable meeting held 4-6 February 2014 in Naivasha, Kenya, was a historic event and tremendous step forward in moving the region toward collectively focusing on harnessing and further enabling the expansion of digital financial inclusion across Africa.
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- Uncategorized
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Microcredit Summit Campaign and Child and Youth Finance International Celebrate Global Money Week 2014
The Microcredit Summit Campaign celebrates Global Money Week 2014 together with Child and Youth Finance International. The Campaign invites its members to join in the celebration and raise maximum awareness for child and youth financial empowerment and inclusion.
- Categories
- Education
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Don’t charge to enlarge: the effect of interest rate changes on microfinance access
A STORY in the finance section this week looks at what has happened to microfinance interest rates. To summarise briefly: we argue that as microfinance for the very poorest borrowers has expanded, microfinance institutions (MFIs) have had to raise their rates. As MFIs target poorer, less reliable customers, they need to charge higher rates to cover increased defaults and steeper funding costs.
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- Uncategorized
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Is there a war for mobile money agents going on in Zimbabwe?
Over the past several days, the discussion in the mobile money space locally has been around a threatening SMS that Econet was accused of sending to their EcoCash agents, essentially telling them that becoming Telecash agents would be a bad move.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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