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Viewpoint: Why India’s Supreme Court Judgment on Aadhaar National IDs Calls or an Appeal
Mahatma Gandhi refused to join the Constituent Assembly that wrote our wonderful Constitution, but his advice to some of the members was, “Whenever you are in doubt, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to control over his own life and destiny? Will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?” I submit that the recent Supreme Court (SC) interim judgment on Aadhaar does not pass the Mahatma’s test and it must be appealed. All it needs is one small tweak.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Vinod Khosla-Backed Novopay Launches Mobile Wallet in India
Novopay Solutions Pvt. Ltd on Wednesday unveiled its consumer wallet, which allows payments at neighbourhood stores, remittances and withdrawals.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Snapdeal and FreeCharge Launch the Mother of All Mobile Wallets in India
When ecommerce marketplace Snapdeal acquired mobile top-up site FreeCharge in April – the biggest acquisition in India to date – the promise was to build a digital commerce ecosystem. An important piece of that jigsaw fell into place today with the launch of a new mobile wallet by Snapdeal and FreeCharge jointly.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments
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Small Farmers and Business Get Reason to Cheer as Reserve Bank of India Grants Licenses to 10 Small Banks
The Reserve Bank granted small bank licences to 10 applicants, most of which are engaged in microfinance, in a move seen as one of the most far-reaching initiatives on financial inclusion since bank nationalisation in the late 1960s.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- South Asia
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- lending, microfinance
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Heart Surgeon Brings High-Tech Health Care to the World’s Poor
Indian philanthropist and cardiac surgeon Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty is the Chairman of Narayana Health in Bangalore. Born in a small village, Shetty went to school in Bangalore before studying in the UK. After returning to India in 1989, Mother Teresa had a heart attack, and Dr. Shetty was called to operate on her. From then on, he served as her personal physician.
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Rural Children in India Have Better Immunization Rates
Contrary to earlier studies, children in rural India have higher vaccinationrates than those in cities and Hindu kids are more likely to get their shots than Muslims, researchers from a leading American university have said.
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- vaccines
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Unitus Seed Fund Expands Its India StartHealth Investment Program
Unitus Seed Fund, the leading impact venture seed fund investing in startups innovating for the masses in India, announced that it is doubling down on its StartHealth investing initiative targeting investments of INR 15 crore in 6 new early-stage health technology startups. With partners such as Pfizer, PATH, Manipal Hospitals and Narayana Health, the StartHealth program provides flexible funding, expert support, and mentorship as well as access to healthcare facilities to accelerate the go-to-market path for promising startups. Unitus also announced that Dr. Ashwin Naik, founder of Vaatsalya hospitals, will be joining as a healthcare fund advisor to help support healthcare entrepreneurs invested in by Unitus. Separately, StartHealth participant UE LifeSciences announced earlier this week that it has raised a INR 19.5 crore Series A investment round led by Aarin Capital.
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Viewpoint: Why India’s Department of Post Should Be Restructured for Financial Inclusion and Efficiency
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently gave a licence to India Post to function as a payments bank. Does it change anything for the people? Post offices in India have already been working as payments banks. Individuals open accounts, deposit and withdraw money by cash or cheques and receive payments through them. All these transactions are meticulously recorded manually in their passbook. Post offices do not provide any loans or carry out any credit transaction. This has been in operation for more than a century and much before the RBI came into existence. So, what would change after the RBI’s licence?
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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