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Trending: Blending, The Fad for Mixing Public, Charitable and Private Money
MEETING the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals will require additional investments of $2.5 trillion a year in things like health care and education for the world’s poorest people, according to UNCTAD, a UN agency. A further $13.5 trillion is needed by 2030 to implement the Paris climate accord, according to the International Energy Agency, a watchdog group. It is enough to drive development types to drink—which may be how they came up with the term “blended finance”, a heady cocktail of public, private and charitable money.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Viewpoint: Review Moratorium on Oil Palm Plantations
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo plans to issue a decree on the suspension of issuances of new oil palm plantation development in the country. His decision is a commitment to protect the country’s remaining tropical forests and demonstrate his determination for the country’s environmental stewardship.
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- Environment
- Region
- South Asia
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‘India Makes All Mylan HIV Drugs for Developing World’
Rajiv Malik is president of Mylan, the $9.5-billion, Nasdaq-listed global generic and speciality pharmaceuticals company. Malik became part of Mylan in 2007 when the latter acquired India-based Matrix Laboratories, where he was CEO. That deal also transformed Mylan, which till then operated only in the US, into one of the world's largest manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). On a recent visit to Bengaluru, Malik spoke to TOI:
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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A Costly Setback for SKS Microfinance?
Just as it seemed SKS Microfinance was getting back on its feet, it has received a body blow once again. It had applied for a small finance bank (SFB) licence, but while eight of the 10 entities the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) awarded these licences to were microfinance institutions (MFIs), SKS Microfinance was not one of them (See Left Out). Indeed, of the 10 leading MFIs in the country, one, Bandhan, has become a full-fledged bank, while another eight will shortly be converted into SFBs. SKS Microfinance is the only one left out.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- microfinance
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A New Blood Test for Tuberculosis Could Save Millions of Lives
As much as one third of the global population is currently infected with the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB), a disease typically concentrated in the lungs and characterized by weakness, fever, coughing and chest pain. About 9.6 million new infections occurred in 2014, the most recent year for which numbers are available. Roughly 1.5 million people died of TB that same year. The ability to easily, inexpensively and accurately diagnose TB is of utmost importance, but the most commonly used method fails, at least to some extent, on all three counts. A new blood-based technique might considerably rein in this epidemic.
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Fundnel Partners With Impact Guru to Transform Social Impact Investing
Singapore-based investment platform Fundnel has entered into a strategic tie-up with Indian crowdfunding platform Impact Guru to tap into philanthropic and investment capital from the Indian diaspora based in Southeast Asia and plough back investments into ventures that address social needs.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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1mg Gets $16 Million Series B to Make India’s Health Industry More Transparent
India’s pharmaceutical market is filled with generic options—but they don’t always save consumers money. In fact, some drugs are even more expensive than their branded counterparts. Created to give patients more power over their health costs, startup 1mg announced today that it has raised a $16 million Series B led by Maverick Capital Ventures, with participation from returning investors Sequoia India and Omidiyar Network.
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Paytm Launches Wi-Fi Pilot in India; Enables Free Internet for a Limited Duration
Underlining its digital-first approach, Paytm, India’s largest mobile payments and commerce platform, has announced the launch of its ambitious pilot project to enable seamless internet connectivity for users. Under this initiative, Paytm is enabling limited-duration free Wi-Fi for its users in partnership with a licensed ISP. The first such Wi-Fi initiative is already underway near the Noida-18 metro station in partnership with a licensed ISP.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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