'Best Legislator' Yadav now gets Birsa Munda Award

Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) MLA Pradip Yadav, who was adjudged the Best Legislator Award, 2015, today received the coveted Birsa Munda award from Governor Droupadi Murmu on the 15th foundation day of the state assembly.
The award carries Rs 51,000, a citation and a shawl.
Grameen Foundation India worked with Sonata Finance Pvt.
Ltd., a leading Indian microfinance institution, and Oxigen, a mobile payment operator to develop a mobile wallet platform for Sonata's clients. The new model enables clients to make loan repayments via mobile phone instead of going to an office. The program has reached out to over 23,222 beneficiaries in training them on mobile financial services. Till now, transactions worth INR 1.5 cr have been routed through Oxigen.

Commenting on the occasion, Ms. Chandni Ohri, CEO, Grameen Foundation India stated, "We are honoured to receive the prestigious Mondato Award. Our key motivation for this project was to increase access to financial services, especially among women, by harnessing the growing presence of mobile phones in rural India and technological developments in digital financial services. Today, the mobile penetration in India stands at 85 percent while only 0.3 percent of people have used mobile money. This demonstrates the huge scope for expansion and innovation in this area."
Some of the notable winners in the past include BIMA for the Mondato DF+ Social Impact of the Year Award for MFS in Emerging Asia category & Lenddo for the Mondato Asian MFC Innovation of the Year Award. BIMA is a provider of mobile-delivered insurance and health services in emerging markets. Lenddo is a leader in social authentication and scoring technology, using alternative data to provide credit scoring and verification for the emerging middle class.