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Smart money for India?s rural poor
India?s Finance Ministry and Planning Commission are looking into ways of using electronic smart cards to transform the distribution of relatively small amounts of government money to India?s 220 million people who live below the poverty line, and maybe to 200-300 million more who are only marginally better off. This would make it much more difficult for bureaucrats, politicians and middlemen to siphon off the funds as they move down the distribution chain. ?We alr...
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- Asia Pacific
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PM: Find Ways to Tackle Poverty
Enough talk, let?s find real solutions to poverty in the world. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said immediate action must be taken to resolve the problem of the poor. Let us, therefore, in the next two days, concentrate on finding solutions to this problem, he told some 400 participants at the opening of the Eighth Langkawi International Dialogue (LID) 2007 here last night. LANGKAWI: Enough talk, let?s find real solutions to poverty in the world.
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- Asia Pacific
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Innovate for India’s Poor
When the Korean steelmaker Posco decided to invest $11 billion in the bleak hinterland of eastern India, it might have expected to be greeted with flowers. Instead, two Posco executives were recently kidnapped, but later released unharmed, in a protest over government policies to transfer land from struggling farmers to the mega-corporations driving India’s modernization. It is only the latest evidence of gathering rage among the hundreds of millions who remain mute spectators to ...
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- Asia Pacific
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Microsoft Launches Educational PC In India
Microsoft has teamed up with Advanced Micro Devices and India?s Zenith Computers to launch a personal computer aimed at Indian students for 21,000 rupees ($513). The IQ PC will run on AMD Athlon processors and have education software from both Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - ...
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Big Boom Coming Soon in India’s Small Car Segment
Even as competition has built up to unprecedented levels in the car market, one segment has remained untouched - that of entry-level small cars. But that’s all set to change from next year, with a slew of cars priced around Rs 1 lakh revving to get off the blocks. Urban planners might be appalled at what this could mean for traffic congestion and parking, but companies - and consumers - are raring to go. The first launch will be that of Tata Motors’ much-talked-about Rs 1 la...
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- Asia Pacific
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Global fin giants to go micro in India
India?s growing microfinance segment may soon see the entry of global financial services giant, Morgan Stanley and the Switzerland-based Blue Orchard Finance. Both these firms are in talks with the banking regulator Reserve Bank of India to foray into the local microfinance segment. Indian microfinance institutions have already started looking at diversifying their avenues to raise funds as part of the effort to lo...
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- Asia Pacific
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PM approves strategy to expand microfinance outreach to 3 mln households
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has approved the strategy to expand microfinance outreach from one million to three million households by 2010. He was chairing a meeting here Wednesday to review the strategy prepared by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to increase the coverage of microfinance sector in Pakistan. The Prime Minister said Pakistan has come a long way in introducing and familiarizing the micro finance concept. However, strategic steps need to be taken and multiple approaches ...
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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India, Inc. gets back to the basics
Salvation in a sachet is passe now. Rural India will no longer be the playing ground of the FMCG bigwigs alone. In fact, many sectors such as telecom, IT, retail and education are at various stages of striking a deal with the aam aadmi. According to a recent Assocham report, the per capita income of semi-urban Indians is around Rs 15,000 per annum, whereas it?s Rs 7,000 per annum for rural populace. As per its findings, by 2012, the per capita income of rural population will do...
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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