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Amit Bhatia’s Aspire: Matching Rural Workers With Jobs
BIG IDEA: To supply India’s booming economy with millions of young workers who come from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds. Bhatia’s company, Aspire, trains high-school and college students to become English-speaking, tech-savvy, problem-solving whiz kids ready for hire. The company then connects students to jobs, often in the technology and service sectors, at major corporations such as IBM, Accenture, Wipro, and Infosys. This year, Aspire will work with rough...
- Region
- South Asia
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FMCG Firms Bank On Higher Volumes In Rural Market
NEW DELHI: Aiming for a deeper penetration in rural markets, FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) majors, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Britannia, are introducing products in low price points particularly in the Rs 5 category as part of their strategy to shore up volumes. While global beverages firm Coca-Cola has introduced ’Fanta Fun Taste’ powder sachet for Rs 5 targeting the lower end of the market, Pepsico had also recently brought out 200 ml bottle for Rs 5 for its popular ...
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- South Asia
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Inclusion Banking to Turn Into Profits Soon: Union Bank
MUMBAI, APR 24: Union Bank of India, the fifth largest public sector lender with over Rs 3.55 lakh crore in assets, has said its financial inclusion project, called the ’new bankable class’, will turn profitable sooner than expected. "Going by our experience with the financial inclusion project, which we call ’banking for the new bankable class’, this will turn in profits sooner than later, especially when the cash transfer facilities under Adhaar s...
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- South Asia
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An Investment That Mixes Profit With Philanthropy
The grey zone of impact investments - which are neither philanthropic grants nor simple for-profit investments - is potentially huge. A report from JP Morgan late last year suggested the potential over the next 10 years, in just five sectors of services for the global poor,...
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Govt’s Microfinance Model Promises to Empower Poor
GANDHINAGAR: At a time when controversy surrounding microfinance institutions charging higher-than-usual interest rates from its poor borrowers - mainly womenfolk - refuses to die down in Andhra Pradesh and some other parts of India , Gujarat government claims to have resolved the issue, coming up with a new model envisaging, to quote a document, "a ...
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- South Asia
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Untying the Knot
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. By Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. PublicAffairs; 336 pages; $26.99. To be published in Britain in June by PublicAffairs; £15.99. Buy from Amazon.com , ...
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Kiva Expands Micro-Loans to Green Businesses
Kiva.org, one of the pioneers in micro-lending to international entrepreneurs, has expanded into a new vertical today- Kiva Green Loans. Green Loans, which can be accessed from a new module on the lend tab, is a new vertical that allows the Kiva community to make loans towards green businesses and individuals who are helping make the transitio...
- Categories
- Health Care
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Grameen FDN, Grameen Capital India announce US$7 MN funding to Cashpor
Grameen Foundation and Grameen Capital India recently announced USD7 million (Rs. 315 million) in funding for Cashpor Micro Credit through a guarantee pool for socially-focused Indian microfinance institutions (MFIs). The financing from IndusInd Bank and another private sector bank in India was backed by US$980,000 in guarantees from Grameen Foundation and arranged by Grameen Capital India. These were the first guarantees to be placed through the US$ 8 million initiative that was ...
- Region
- South Asia
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