Digital financial services have seen a rapid growth since the demonetisation drive four years ago. Besides this, the Prime Minister’s flagship programme ‘Digital India’ boosted the entry of Fintechs and enablers like Aadhaar, Jan-Dhan, and mobile penetration have helped in large-scale adoption of digital payments. According to the latest NPCI data, the UPI registered 2.07 billion transactions worth Rs 3,86,106 crore in October this year.

At a virtual summit, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says focus should remain on helping the vulnerable population and that people must learn to live with social distancing.

New Delhi: There’s no choice between lives and livelihoods as the two are interdependent and must be protected equally, said World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Wednesday.

Tedros was delivering the keynote address on day three of the Sankalp Global Summit 2020’s ‘Health and Wash Session’.

During his address, Tedros said that while the global conversation is revolving around choosing between lives and livelihoods, the focus should remain on health too.

“The conversation around the world is between lives and livelihoods. But there is no such choice as the two are not independent, but interdependent. When people are healthy, only then can they innovate,” he said.

The virtual summit, which started on 2 November, will continue until 6 November. The summit has over 5,000 delegates from India and over 30 countries are participating. The focus of the summit is ‘An Entrepreneurial Renaissance — Designing An Impact Economy’.

Focus on vulnerable groups

The WHO chief, who is in self-isolation after one of his contacts tested positive, said the focus should remain on helping the vulnerable population. 

He said people should find ways to help each other during the pandemic, and for this, he listed a few ways. This includes finding a way to contribute to community response, staying informed about the facts and best practices of hygiene and social distancing, and advocating for more preparedness in health so that if such a pandemic strikes again, healthcare systems are better prepared.

In addition, workplaces should also set examples of safety measures and plan how to handle a similar crisis in the future if a pandemic strikes again, Tedros added.

The summit comes at a time when the US and the UK, as well as parts of Europe are witnessing a second wave of coronavirus infections.

India, however, registered a decline in cases over the last week. 

According to the health ministry, as of Wednesday, India has recorded a total of 83,13,876 cases with 1,23,611 deaths and 76,56,478 recoveries.

The global tally according to the WHO dashboard stands at 47,059,867 total cases with 12,07,327 deaths. 

‘Must learn to live with social distancing’
At the summit, Tedros said focus should remain on taking care of mental health along with physical health. “There is no health without mental health,” he said.

The WHO chief further said in order for the community to tide over the pandemic, people must learn to live with social distancing.

“We can’t go back to the way things were,” he added.

Why news media is in crisis & How you can fix it
India needs free, fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism even more as it faces multiple crises.

But the news media is in a crisis of its own. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism is shrinking, yielding to crude prime-time spectacle.

ThePrint has the finest young reporters, columnists and editors working for it. Sustaining journalism of this quality needs smart and thinking people like you to pay for it. Whether you live in India or overseas, you can do it here.

Sankalp was initiated in India in 2009 by Intellecap to create a thriving ecosystem for business-led solutions to achieve the UN SDG Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 across the Global South.

Over the past 11 years, Sankalp has built one of the world’s largest impact enterprise focused platforms that has showcased and discovered 1,800+ entrepreneurs through 22 editions of its flagship summits and has connected them to over 600 investors. Sankalp has enabled entrepreneurs to raise over USD 270 million in funding and disbursed $870 K in cash grants.

Sankalp also engages with governments, corporations, influential platforms like the G7 and G20, media and civil society to drive a paradigm shift in inclusive development approaches. Sankalp’s core is the entrepreneur and it uses the framework of knowledge, capital & networks to create an enabling ecosystem for their success.

Location: Virtual
Dates: November 2, 2020 – November 6, 2020

ImpactAlpha, Nov. 25 – More than 1,100 participants from 20 countries will descend on Mumbai this week for the Sankalp Forum. Now in its 11th year, the global forum from Intellecap, the advisory arm of the Aavishkaar Group, brings one of the world’s largest spotlights to entrepreneurs and enterprises serving lower income segments and emerging middle classes across Asia and Africa.

Mumbai, Dec. 2 – Shloka Nath of Tata Trusts, one of India’s oldest philanthropies, is trying to reframe the climate challenge.

ImpactAlpha, Dec. 9 – India’s social stock exchange is expected to take the form of an electronic fundraising platform regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India that lists both social enterprises and voluntary organizations. The exchange in India promises to diversify capital sources available to more than two million social enterprises across the country.

The Innovation Challenge seeks non pollutant alternatives and systems to cut down single-use plastic

Mumbai, November , 2019: Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL) has launched a first-of-its-kind open Innovation Challenge with Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) to spearhead a change in packaging and find innovative alternatives to plastics.

According to an estimate by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India generates almost 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily. Approximately 43% of manufactured plastic in the country is used for packaging purposes, most of which is single-use plastic waste, As the apparel and textile industry is struggling with plastics waste, the Innovation Challenge aims to find solutions to one of the industry’s biggest challenges.

“At ABFRL, we aim to use 100% sustainable packaging material by eliminating any type of pollutant. Going forward, we will be exploring innovative packaging solutions to reduce our carbon footprint. We are pleased to partner with CAIF for this initiative. We endeavor to lead industry practices around sustainability and platforms such as these enable us to bring forth ideas and innovations that accelerate the adoption of sustainable fashion” said Mr Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, ABFRL at the launch.

He further added “We are hoping to find solutions to one of the industry’s biggest challenge of reducing usage of single use plastic packaging. We are confident that the Innovation Challenge initiative will help the industry to transition to circular business practices”.

Dr. Naresh Tyagi, Chief Sustainability Officer, ABFRL, “In 2013, ABFRL began a unique Sustainability Program called ‘ReEarth’ which addresses the most significant economic, environmental and social issues that humanity faces today and since then we have done pioneering work in sustainable and circular fashion. This initiative is another step forward in that journey. We are delighted to partner with CAIF and are certain that innovators and startups present here will be able to leverage this opportunity to come up with eco-friendly alternatives to plastic”.

Circular Apparel Innovation Factory is an industry-led initiative with Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail and The DOEN Foundation as anchor partners and driven by Intellecap with vision to make India’s textile and apparel industry circular through building the capabilities and ecosystem needed for this transition. Open innovation challenges are one way by which CAIF addresses the discovery gap and helps its industry members to identify opportunities for change and possible partners for collaboration to make circular business practices a reality.

Vikas Bali, CEO Intellecap, “We know that ‘business as usual’ will not help solving the size of the problem India and the world is witnessing with regard to plastic waste. We are proud to help ABFRL as an industry pioneer in its journey to finding ways to rethink current approaches to packaging”.

CAIF Conclave, a first of its kind industry conclave was hosted by Intellecap in partnership with ABFRL and The DOEN Foundation. The conclave focused on the need for change towards circular business practices and showcasing some of the industry’s most forward-thinking efforts towards a circular economy.

The conclave, which happened as part of this year’s Sankalp Forum saw participation of 300+ industry participants and some of the country’s most innovative circular fashion startups.

MUMBAI : Bain Capital is looking to deploy around $1 billion in Indian companies over the next three years, underscoring the private equity firm’s bullish stance on this market despite the current economic downturn.

The US-based PE investor, which raised its fourth Asia-focused fund, the biggest so far, at $4.65 billion, has been a major investor in the country.

“If you look at over the last seven years, we have invested over $2.5 billion and are one of the biggest investors in the country. There is no reason why we cannot keep investing in India at the same pace,” said Amit Chandra, managing director and chairman of Bain’s India office, on the sidelines of Sankalp Global Summit held in Mumbai.

Chandra said Bain’s focus on India will be on writing a few large cheques.

“Our investments in Axis Bank, Genpact and Hero MotoCorp were over $500 million. So, single deals will continue to be the strategy going forward, as we have always focused on big deals. Single deals for us have been in the $500 million to $1 billion range,” he added.

While Bain does not have hard geographic allocations for deploying capital, Chandra said India features amongst the top three markets for the PE firm.

“India is one of the most important markets for us among the key markets that we invest in- Japan, China, India, Australia and South Korea. Historically, India has been 20-25% of any fund. This is just the Asia fund, we also invest into India from our global fund,” he added.

ImpactAlpha, Nov. 25 – More than 1,100 participants from 20 countries will descend on Mumbai this week for the Sankalp Forum. Now in its 11th year, the global forum from Intellecap, the advisory arm of the Aavishkaar Group, brings one of the world’s largest spotlights to entrepreneurs and enterprises serving lower income segments and emerging middle classes across Asia and Africa.

Mumbai, Dec. 2 – Shloka Nath of Tata Trusts, one of India’s oldest philanthropies, is trying to reframe the climate challenge.