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Blackstone to Invest $34 Mln in India’s FINO
(Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group said on Thursday it will invest 1.5 billion rupees ($34 million) in FINO, an Indian technology solutions provider for banks, microfinance institutions and insurance companies. Existing investors in FINO include HSBC , ICICI Bank and Intel Capital, according to the website of the company that was set up in 2006 and is based in Mumbai. Private equity de...
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- South Asia
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Banks Asked to Up Credit Flow to SMEs
While bank advances were growing above 20 per cent yearly, lending to small and micro enterprises (SMEs) should also grow at a decent pace, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) told banks in the annual review meeting of its standing advisory committee on SMEs on Tuesday. "Credit growth is more than 20 per cent, higher than RBI’s projection. In Tuesday’s meeting, the focus was that micro credit also should grow. Banks will try to see how to step up credit, especially to small manufact...
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- South Asia
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WB to Give $1 Bn for Rural Livelihood Programme
NEW DELHI: The World Bank has approved $1 billion credit for National Rural Livelihoods Project ( NRLP )), which it said will aim at strengthening the implementation of the newly launched National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). NRLM is one of the world’s largest poverty reduction initiatives costing approximately $ 7.7 billion, aiming to reach 350 million people. The World Bank will help the Indian government create institutional platform by mobilising rural...
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- South Asia
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Teatulia: A Tea Company Helps Lift a Village Out of Poverty
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- For some businesses, giving back means making a tax-deductible donation to a local little league team. But for Teatulia, an organic tea company, giving back means creating a better life for a community halfway around the globe. The two-year-old startup has done what many companies cannot or will not, which is marry a revenue-growing business with a thriving social responsibility program. The Denver company sells organic tea that is now sold in Whole Foods an...
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- South Asia
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Microfinance Firms Asked to be ?Fair? to the Poor
Mumbai: It’s back to basics for the Rs. 20,000 crore Indian microfinance sector as industry lobby group Sa-Dhan, which counts at least 250 microfinance institutions (MFIs) as members, has asked all such firms to deal "fairly" with debtors and avoid coercion in collecting dues. The association will in the next few weeks discuss compliance issues with individual MFIs, Sa-Dhan executive director Mathew Titus said. "The effort is to move towards a new regulatory regime," he added. ...
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- South Asia
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How NextDrop is Using Cell Phones, Crowdsourcing to Get Water to the Thirsty
In many cities in developing countries, residents have piped water supplies. But there’s a catch: the water is only available through the pipes for a few hours at a time, and people have no way of knowing when that will be. As a result, residents (mostly women and the poor) spend their days just waiting for the water to arrive. NextDrop , one of the winners of the Knigh...
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- South Asia
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Milk Storage Unit Uses Sun to Keep Cool
Got chilled milk? That’s the unofficial slogan for Boston-based Promethean Power Systems, a company that this month received a grant from the National Science Foundation to further develop its innovative milk refrigeration system. Promethean’s target market is India, though it plans to expand to Africa and Latin America as soon as February. India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of milk; the country is home to some 70 million farmers who contribute to a mul...
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- South Asia
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Will Indian IT Companies’ Business Model Become Stagnant?
BANGALORE: Indian IT companies, which rode the outsourcing wave to become large corporations, may lag a bit while becoming sustainable corporations that create fortune "with" the bottom of the pyramid, says management guru Stuart L Hart . The American academic who was in town recently, says: "From what I can see, there is a little bit of self-satisfaction and comfort with the current model. Maybe they are getting stuck in the outsourcing model like that is the endgame. But it is...
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