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Mind, Society and Behavior – and Financial Inclusion: How should behavioral research inform initiatives at the World Bank and beyond?
Paying attention to how people think, and to how history and context shape their thinking, can improve the design and implementation of development policies and interventions that target human behavior. What does this mean in practice? And how should it apply to financial inclusion efforts, and to the World Bank’s work in particular? Douglas Randall discusses.
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Bill Gates Explains Why Bitcoin Won’t Help the Poor
According to the World Bank, approximately 2.5 billion people (roughly half of the world’s adult population) does not have a bank account due to reasons such as lack of money, high fees, long distances, and complicated paperwork.
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Bharti Airtel, India’s Largest Mobile Services Provider, Applies for a Payments Bank License
Bharti Airtel, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Airtel M Commerce Services Ltd. (AMSL), is applying for a Payments Bank licence with Kotak Mahindra BankBSE -0.69 % as a partner.
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A Big Step Forward for Bolstering Financial Inclusion
Economists are paying increasing attention to the link between financial inclusion—greater availability of and access to financial services—and economic development. In anew paper, we take a closer look at exactly how financial inclusion impacts a country’s economy and what policies are most effective in promoting it.
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If Cash Is King in Africa, Mobile Money Is Heir Apparent
For most African businesses and the populace at large, cash is king, owing to the continent’s developing electronic funds transfer systems and the slow uptake of technology-based remittance and payments platforms. But experts believe that the growing integration of telecommunications and banking in most African countries, as well as the continued revamping of platforms enabling electronic funds transfers, is helping mobile money to catch up to cash in terms of popularity.
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The Overlooked Secret to Successful Small Businesses: The ‘demand side of financing’
The inability to access capital is a frequent obstacle for would-be entrepreneurs in the developing world. But most of the energy spent on solving this problem is currently focused on the financial industry, or the supply side. Instead, we should focus more attention on the demand side of funding – working with entrepreneurs, argues Juan Carlos Thomas of TechnoServe.
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Why 2015 Will Be a Game-Changer for Financial Inclusion in India
When it comes to digital finance, India punches below its weight. The 2014 Intermedia Financial Inclusion Insight (FII) Survey of 45,000 Indian adults found that 0.3% of adults use mobile money, compared to 76% in Kenya, 48% in Tanzania, 43% in Uganda, and 22% in Bangladesh.
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How One Man Brought Health Care to India’s Poorest Populations
Shelley Saxena, a mobile technology entrepreneur in Atlanta, had a head start when he launched Sevamob, a distribution system for low-cost preventive health services across India. But that didn’t save him from having to make a few strategic pivots as his new business grew.
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- Health Care
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