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  • Microfinance Pioneer Yunus Criticises Indian Lenders

    DHAKA - Bangladeshi microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus on Sunday attacked companies for "misusing and abusing" his original concept of helping poor people via small loans, after a backlash against profit-making lenders. Yunus admitted the reputation of micro-credit had been tarnished due to Indian commercial companies that charge high interest rates and use allegedly heavy-handed tactics to collect repayments. India’s biggest lender to the poor, SKS Microfinance, has been in ...

    Source
    Google News (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    South Asia
  • The Technology to Unlock the Future of Villages

    In 20 years of working as a physician in Karnataka’s Hassan district, Kumaraswamy N E often found himself irked by the blurred readings on the electrocardiography (ECG) machine. Often enough, it just broke down, which meant that the high cost of measuring heart activity had to be passed on to the patient...

    Source
    The Times of India (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    South Asia
  • A Silver Lining in Pakistan’s Floods

    With the devastating floods that began in July, Mother Nature has left an indelible imprint on Pakistan-its geography, its people, its national psyche. But it has also created an opportunity to change the destiny of millions of flood victims who traumatically lost their loved ones, homes, and livelihoods in mere days. This natural disaster may have given the country an opportunity to tackle a recurring point of contention in Pakistan-feudalism. Academics, journalists, and analysts have ...

    Source
    Businessweek (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    South Asia
  • Sudan’s First SMS-Powered Voting Monitor Tracks Violence

    While Sudanese vote about the fate of South Sudan’s independence, one Sudan-born Texan supports the voting process from afar with a historic mobile-powered monitoring tool. Fareed Zein came to the United States from Sudan in 1981 to pursue a college education in computer science. One of the lucky ones, his family could afford his departure and his education, and he left before civil war rattled his homeland. Zein now spends his time--outside of his day job in oil and gas in Ho...

    Source
    Fast Company (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Tata?s Nano, the Car That Few Want to Buy

    Though car sales have shot up across India, because of an economy that is growing at nearly 9 percent annually, sales of the Nano have been falling for the last four months. Its maker, Tata Motors , sold only 509 Nanos to its dealers in...

    Source
    The New York Times (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    South Asia
  • 16 Tycoons Agree to Give Away Fortunes

    The billionaire founder of social network Facebook Inc. has agreed to give the majority of his wealth to charity, part of a broader group of rich entrepreneurs committing to philanthropy earlier in their lives. Mark Zuckerberg has signed onto the "Giving Pledge," which asks its signatories to commit publicly to give away the majority of their wealth. The 26-year-old is one of 16 billionaires new to the p...

    Source
    The Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)
    Categories
    Agriculture
  • Rural Areas Face Challenges to Eradicate Extreme Poverty

    Some 350 million people living in rural areas being lifted out of extreme poverty in the past decade, according to The Rural Poverty Report , published by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a United Nations (UN) agency. However, in spite of this, more than a billion people around the world still continue to suffer. The UN describes extreme poverty as living on less than $1.25 (80p) a...

    Source
    BBC News (link opens in a new window)
  • Thailand Post Wins Green Light to Lend

    The cabinet yesterday approved a plan by Thailand Post to set up a subsidiary to provide microfinance services to low-income earners, using its nationwide post offices as a channel. Information and Communications Technology Minister Juti Krairiksh said that the subsidiary would have initial registered capital of 50 million baht and would extend loans as small as 10,000 baht each. He said that there are about 18 million low-income earners in the country who still have no access to ...

    Source
    Bangkok Post (link opens in a new window)
    Region
    South Asia
    Tags
    manufacturing
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