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Small-Town Entrepreneurs Struggle for VC Funding
Bangalore: Gunjan Kumar’s business proposition is simple. The 28-year-old buys traditional art and craft products from artisans in villages and sells these in metro cities. Kumar started Amethia Apparelz and Co. in Patna 18 months ago with Rs6 lakh. In its first year, the firm earned Rs33 lakh in revenue and expects to end fiscal year 2010 with Rs1.65 crore. In another part of the country, Nafisa Radiatorwala’s start-up, Nature’s Glow, is clo...
- Region
- South Asia
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Damascus Turns to Microfinance to Combat Poverty
A regional front-runner in microfinance legislation, Syria is still struggling to find a sustainable model to finance its rural poor. Currently, NGOs geared toward poverty alleviation dominate Syria’s microcredit market, but further expansion of their role is inhibited by outdated government regulation. The entry of more private players is needed to increase market competition ...
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Global Social Enterprise in Davos
No description provided
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Growing Interest: Why Banks Are Reaching Out to Rural India
In the western Indian state of Maharashtra, in the Mann Desh region, lives 39-year-old Lakshmi Shellar. She spends a typical day in the field tending to her crops; she also rears buffaloes and sells their milk in the village door to door. A widow since the age of 17, Shellar got in touch with Mann Deshi Mahila Bank, a cooperative bank in rural Maharashtra, a few years ago, where she learned the basics about banking products. Now she runs a financial literacy school by night, attended by 20 wo...
- Region
- South Asia
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Self-Reliance Ethos Sets Africa Charity Apart
While billions of pounds have been spent on food aid for developing countries, only a small portion has made any long-term difference to the future economic prosp...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Branchless Banking to Enhance Microfinance Operations
Players in the microfinance industry are looking forward to the establishment of branchless banking so that they can reach more people countrywide without the cost of erecting brick and mortar outlets. The planned changes to the legislation governing the setting up of financial institution branches ,which will allow for the establishment of branchless banking or agency banking, is expected to provide microfinance institutions with a leverage to extend their reach at minimal cost. ...
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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IFC Sharpens Focus on Affordable Housing, Housing Finance in India
The FINANCIAL -- IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is working with key stakeholders including government, regulatory bodies, private sector developers, and financiers to help make affordable housing available for low- and middle-income populations in India. "As part of this initiative, National Housing ...
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- housing
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