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Citi plans thumbprint ATMs for India poor
Citigroup is rolling out a network of biometric automatic cash machines aimed at illiterate Indian slum dwellers, using the latest technology to woo the country’s millions of unbanked poor. The machines will recognise account holders’ thumbprints, eliminating the need for a personal identification number, and will have colour-coded screen instructions and voiceovers to help guide them through transactions. Citigroup has already installed two biometric au...
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Dean Kamen preserves the past and envisions a bright future
Kamen is currently at work on a water treatment system that was successfully tested just a couple months ago in a village in Honduras, he said. The portable device turns contaminated water into clean water by distilling it, using a fraction of the energy required by traditional distillation systems. Kamen predicts such systems could help solve health problems caused by waterborne pathogens all over the world. Another of his inventions was recently used to supply electricity...
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Father of micro-lending Akula is ’Social Entrepreneur 2006’
Author of the Indian microfinance success story Vikram Akula, founder of SKS Microfinance Pvt Ltd, believes that even though microfinance is not an answer to the agriculture crisis in Vidarbha, it can supplement incomes for farm families. After 150 branches all over the country, he moved into Vidarbha recently. His three branches have 1,000 borrowers in 21 villages. It is this pragmatism that has made him India’s most successful micro-financer. On Monday, he was honoured as ’S...
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Motorola kicks off price war in handsets
The world?s second largest phone maker Motorola on Tuesday launched a new phone priced at about Rs 1,600. The strategic pricing is aimed at enhancing its leadership in the sub-Rs 2,000 handset market where it is already the leader in the Rs 14,400 crore entry level segment of the Rs 24,000 crore handsets industry. It competes with Chinese players like Haier and Bird who sell their products starting Rs 1,200 a handset. Nokia, the largest player in the domestic handsets market, offers its entry le...
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Nokia and Motorola Ready to Rumble in Emerging Markets
With mobile phone shipments expected to slow next year, Nokia and Motorola are set to slug it out in emerging markets with low-cost, ultraslim phones. Nokia on Tuesday forecast 10% global unit sales growth for cell phones in 2007, about half the rate of this year’s growth. About 970 million cell phones will be sold in 2006, Nokia estimates. Research firm Gartner says cell phone unit sales rose 21.5% worldwide in the third quarter. Cell phone demand next year ...
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AMD takes new road to PCs for developing countries
Advanced Micro Devices is changing both its products and business model in its plans to address low cost PCs for developing countries. The moves are part of a new direction in the wake of cancelling earlier this month its Personal Internet Communicator (PIC), a low cost PC in a sealed case aimed broadly at developing countries. AMD plans to roll out to systems makers in the next two months multiple low cost PC reference designs based on its Geode processor and tailored to specific mar...
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South Africa: No Second-Guessing Value of Informal Job Creation
The informal sector -- officially defined as businesses that are not registered in any way -- currently accounts for some 2,9-million jobs. Official statistics on the size of its contribution to total employment have fluctuated wildly over the past decade, from 11% in 1996 to a peak of 29% in 2001, then down to 19% in 2004 before climbing to 23% this year. THE government appears to be changing its attitude to the so-called second economy. Speaking earlier this year about t...
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Bharti AirTel, Wal-Mart Sign Tie-Up Deal
Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel has signed a tie-up deal with Wal-Mart to open a chain of retail stores across the country, Sunil B. Mittal, Bharti Airtel’s chief executive officer, said Monday. Mittal declined to divulge the financial details of the deal, but said it would be a huge investment involving hundreds of stores in India. It is going to be a large investment. There will be stores across the country. We are going to be a big player in ...
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