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Alibaba enters into strategic partnership with Indian mobile wallet company Paytm
Through its marketplace AliExpress, Alibaba has entered into a strategic tie-up with Indian mobile wallet company Paytm.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Inside the Inflatable Hospital That’s Saving Lives in Nepal
For a doctor doing surgery, the most important things to focus on (besides cutting in the right place) are being fast and clean. That’s tough enough to accomplish in a brick-and-mortar hospital—let alone a temporary operating room in the middle of a disaster zone. But that’s exactly what Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, for you stubborn Anglophones) does best, and it’s what they’ve been doing for the past week in Nepal. A surprisingly critical part of that remote rescue? Blow-up tent hospitals.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Why Is Pakistan So Far Behind Its Neighbors in Financial Inclusion?
Just this month the World Bank released the 2014 edition of its Global Financial Inclusion (Findex) database. Findex provides useful indicators on savings, borrowings, and payments made by people across the world. The data indicate that the global, adult, banked population stood at 62 percent as of 2014 end, but that still leaves a whopping 2 billion folks that still remain un-banked.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Viewpoint: We Need a New Global System of Disaster Insurance
Natural disasters like the devastating earthquake in Nepal constitute a highly uncertain but quantifiable risk. No one can say for sure when a major earthquake will strike. But the fault lines are known. We need a new global system of disaster insurance, akin to how homeowners guard against calamity.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Priority Status for Solar Power Will Aid Smaller Players
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently revised its priority sector lending (PSL) guidelines. Now medium enterprises, social infrastructure and renewable energy (RE) will form part of priority sector, in addition to the existing categories. This has brought excitement to the stake-holders.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- lending, renewable energy, solar
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In India, More Than 50% of Jan Dhan Yojana Bank Accounts Remain Empty
Nearly nine months after the Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was launched, more than half the accounts do not have any balance.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Shadow Financing Indirectly Flowing Into China Stock Market
Mix the mainland's red-hot stock market with its opaque shadow lending industry and the result could be a new level of risk in the mainland financial sector.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- lending
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Saving Nepal: The Information Revolution
Communities impacted by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake (and subsequent aftershocks) that struck Nepal on April 25th have a variety of needs, stemming from immediate protection of physical safety and security, access to life saving services, and basic subsistence (food, clean water, shelter) and psycho-social support in the aftermath of an extremely traumatic event. In the case of Nepal and the city of Kathmandu, recent reports suggest that the capital city’s critical infrastructure and services were not sufficiently resilient to protect against an earthquake, that the topography of the region is such that landslides remain a concern, and that socio-cultural factors like caste-based discrimination makes some communities more vulnerable than others.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- philanthropy
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