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Bahrain tops London and Silicon Valley for percentage of female startup founders

Agencies
June 18, 2019

Bahrain, Jun 18: Bahrain is one of the top 10 startup ecosystems with the largest share of female founders, according to the 2019 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER), launched at the recent TNW conference in Amsterdam.

Described as 'the world's most comprehensive and widely-read research on startups', the report is produced by Startup Genome in partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.

India enjoys a thriving international partnership with Bahrain in many sectors. As for FinTech, the Bahrain Economic Development Board recently signed an MOU with the Government of Maharashtra, for cooperation on the promotion of FinTech in their respective markets.

Indian Companies such as Rsquare Technologies and Innosoft, are currently residing at Bahrain FinTech Bay (BFB). BFB is rapidly gaining international recognition as a FinTech leader, with a number of key companies like Visa partnering with the organisation. Bahrain also continues to be the region's leading financial services hub, through its forward-thinking regulation including the regulatory sandbox, crypto-assets, and open banking.

With 18 per cent of its start-ups founded by women, Bahrain topped even internationally recognised startup hubs such as Silicon Valley (16 per cent) and London (15 per cent). The report also lauded Bahrain as:

* one of the top 10 ecosystems to watch in FinTech in Europe and the Middle East

* A top 15 Global Ecosystem for affordability of qualified talent.

"This report draws on the views of the people who know best - entrepreneurs and founders. In a very short time Bahrain has emerged as a leading ecosystem with particular strength in FinTech. With both female founders and women taking leadership roles throughout the ecosystem, Bahrain is a dynamic and diverse market at the head of new trends that are shaping the way society and business operates", said H.E. Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board.

"Over the past decade, Bahrain's startup ecosystem has made significant progress where start-ups can access a global network of partners to scale up and capture opportunities in Bahrain and the region", said Dr Ebrahim Mohammed Janahi, Chief Executive of Tamkeen (Bahrain's Labour Fund).

Dr Janahi pointed out one of Bahrain's key competitive advantages in the region, which lies in its firm belief in the importance of women as an active player in shaping Bahrain's economic future.

"In line with these national objectives, Tamkeen has launched a number of ad-hoc programmes to foster the development of female-owned businesses in addition to Tamkeen's flagship programmes supporting individuals and enterprises." he added.

According to Dr. Janahi, more than 59 per cent of women have been served as part of Tamkeen's micro finance support, while more than 50 per cent were served within the business development program, which offers a co-financing service to cover 50 per cent of business equipment.

The Kingdom has a long history of women in senior leadership positions. Currently, a group of female leaders in FinTech is helping to steer the country's FinTech strategy.

Leading female Bahraini startup founders include Hala Sulaiman and Ameera AlQubaiti, Co-founders of Alrawi, a successful audiobook startup and Pitch@Palace Global 3.0 People's Choice 2018 Winner.

Furthermore, Bahrain's Al Waha Fund of Funds, a $100 million fund set up by the Bahrain Development Bank, has an all-female leadership.

The report also recognised Bahrain as a Top 15 Global Ecosystem for affordable talent. Bahrain boasts one of the most skilled and entrepreneurial workforces in the region, over 60 per cent of which work in the private sector.

Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services' AWS Educate training scheme is providing Bahrainis with the necessary skills for cloud-based jobs. Interestingly, it's estimated that more than 60 per cent of computer science students at the University of Bahrain in 2018 were women.

Bahrain's tax regime - the most liberal in the Gulf - and wage subsidies for new employers emerged as real differentiators among the key draws highlighted in the report. The report reflects the views of more than 10,000 founders and draws on data from over one million companies. It ranks the highest-performing startup ecosystems, cities and regions by assessing performance against the following factors:

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

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News Network
March 6,2020

Mumbai, Mar 6: Harried Yes Bank depositors rushed to ATMs to withdraw cash but faced multitude of problems including closed down machines and long queues, after the RBI placed the bank under a moratorium, capping maximum withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account for a month.

Aggravating the problems of depositors were difficulties accessing the internet banking channel, which ensured that they can't transfer the funds online as well. At an ATM in south Mumbai's Horniman Circle, with the RBI headquarters overlooking it, the shutters were pulled down.

The guard on duty said the machine was non-operational before he reported to work late in the evening and he was ordered to shut it after 2200 hrs. In the residential area of suburban Chembur, one ATM was dispensing cash but had a long queue of anxious depositors.

One man said it was still possible to withdraw up to Rs 50,000 in multiple transactions from the machine.

However, another machine nearby had run dry within minutes of the RBI announcement, a woman said.

The regulatory actions, undertaken by the RBI and the government, came hours after finance ministry sources confirmed that SBI was directed to bail out the troubled lender.

For the next month, Yes Bank will be led by the RBI-appointed administrator Prashant Kumar, an ex-chief financial officer of SBI.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

New Delhi, Jan 11: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday said that he has never seen innocents like the Indian people, who believe the claims made by the government on the implementation of its programmes. The former Union Minister, addressing a literary event, said, "I have never seen innocents like the Indian people. If something appears on print (and named two newspapers also), we believe it. We believe anything."

Claims like all villages having been electrified in the country and toilets built for 99 per cent of families in India were being believed, he said.

Similar was the case of the Ayushman Bharat scheme, (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana or PM-JAY is a flagship health care scheme of the Centre), he alleged.

Stating that his Delhi-based driver's father had to get a surgery done under the scheme, he said, however, it could not be performed.

"I asked him (car driver) if he had the Ayushman card and he showed a card and I told him to take it (to hospital). In hospital after hospital, they said they were not aware of anything like that (Ayushman scheme). But we believe that the Ayushman scheme has come to the whole of India," he said.

Further, he said "we believe that for any disease, treatment will be done (indicating the Ayushman scheme) without shelling out money. We are being innocents."

Many news items and data were contrary to the truth, he added.

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Agencies
July 29,2020

If everything goes as Russia’s expectation, it will be world’s first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine for widespread in the second week of August despite safety and efficacy concerns, according to a report. The adenoviral vector-based vaccine developed by Russian military and government researchers is currently in phase 2 trials.

According to a report from CNN, Russian officials are hoping to get approval for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute on Agust 10 or even before that. The officials told the outlet that the vaccine will be approved for public use with frontline healthcare workers receiving it first.

“It’s a Sputnik moment,” said Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is financing Russian vaccine research, referring to the successful 1957 launch of the world’s first satellite by the Soviet Union, according to CNN.

“Americans were surprised when they heard Sputnik’s beeping. It’s the same with this vaccine. Russia will have got there first,” he was quoted as saying.

However, Russia is yet to release the scientific data on its coronavirus vaccine trials, hence, questions remain about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, said the report. The vaccine is in the second phase of testing with developers planning to launch the phase 3 trials sometime after August 3.

Earlier, Interfax reported, citing Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, that the vaccine will be widely used in parallel with phase 3 trials. He said the country plans to vaccinate medics who are at high-risk for COVID-19 next month before clinical trials are completed.

Murashko added that individuals at higher risk of getting infected with the coronavirus such as older people or those with health conditions will also be prioritised for the vaccine, although he did not estimate or reveal when that would happen. The minister added 800 people will be recruited for the phase 3 trials.

Meanwhile, health officials were more cautious considering the fact that human testing of the vaccine is incomplete, and the state registration is expected to begin after August 3, reported The Moscow Times.

On Monday, Moderna and Pfizer announced the commencement of the final phase 3 trials of their candidate vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has so far claimed at least 654,477 lives and infected 16,514,500 people worldwide. 

Researchers will recruit up to 30,000 volunteers in separate trials both backed by the US government. India's first indigenous coronavirus vaccine, COVAXIN, is undergoing phase 1 human clinical trials across the country. More than 150 COVID-19 vaccines are being developed all over the world with at least six candidates already in late-stage clinical trials.

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