-
How Foundations Like Ronnie Screwvala’s Swades Are Helping Entrepreneurs Emerge From Rural India
For Ronnie Screwvala this was an unusual success story. At a community centre in Khamgaon, a village 166 km south of Mumbai, he engaged a group of 25 rural women, all dressed in pink, aged between 30 and 40, in a discussion on sanitary napkins with great enthusiasm.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
-
Indian Payments Company Oxigen Eyeing Up to $200 Million Expansion Drive
Payment solutions provider Oxigen is on a major expansion drive that includes hiring about 1,500 people and ramping up its payment network across semi-urban and rural India. The firm is also eyeing a large share of the remittances market and prepares the ground for launching a payments bank.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
-
Four Major Banks Launch Branchless Banking Program in Indonesia
The Financial Services Authority (OJK), along with four of the nation’s largest banks, launched on Thursday a nationwide campaign on financial services without physical branches to help boost access to the banking system in rural areas.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
-
Korean Social Enterprises Go Global
Social enterprises — businesses that prioritize human and environmental benefits equally to profits — are effective vehicles to achieve development goals as their market-based approaches bring sustainability and scalability that are essential to create long-term impact.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Asia Pacific
-
India’s National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Launches Digitization Scheme for Women Self-Help Groups
With an objective to promote financial inclusion, Nabard today started a pilot project for complete digitisation of women self help groups (SHGs) to improve the quality of interface between members and banks for efficient and hassle free delivery of banking services.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
-
Who Moved My Cheese?: A social enterprise discovers that the dairy business is harder than it looks
In a poor region of Bolivia, goat milk producers often drink their own product, for lack of a market. Pro-Milk was launched to help them make and sell cheese instead. But the company was soon undermined by challenges in its business model and region. Fundación IES, a development institution that supported Pro-Milk, tells the story in the latest post in our business failure series.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
-
Press Release: Better Than Cash Alliance Study Shows Colombia’s Digital Payment Tool for Coffee Farmers Is a Model to Replicate
The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) Smart Coffee ID Card (CCI), launched in 2006, has become a vital tool for financial inclusion and change in the productive dynamics of Colombia´s rural sector, according to the Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA), a United Nations alliance of governments, companies and the development community committed to the global transition from cash to electronic payments.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Latin America
-
Bank of Zimbabwe Launches $50 Million Fund to Support Smallholder Farmers, Rural Development
Bank of Zambia (BoZ) Governor Michael Gondwe has launched a US$50 million Fund under the MasterCard Foundation’s Fund to support smallholder farmers in the rural areas.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.