Interesting personal experience article by Jitin Mitra on the status and impact of microfinance in India. As a result of the microfinance crisis in India, there has been a significant decline in the availability of microloans for poor Indian workers. While certain politicians gloat that they are protecting poor borrowers, Jitin notes that “the reality is… Continue reading Microfinance is more than a loan
This week, the Reserve Bank of India (India’s central banking regulator) proposed significant new microfinance regulations which would impact the majority of microfinance lending in India. There are many new regulation recommendations which they hope to have adopted as early as April 1, 2011. Here are a few highlights: Create a new non-banking financial company… Continue reading India Regulator Proposes Radical Microfinance Reforms
Good video explainer and analysis on the microcredit crisis in the state of Andra Pradesh in India. I recommend if you’d like to get a good overview of the history and situation. A Ujjivan client is highlighted in the first and second video. Ujjivan is one of the most socially responsible and professionally run… Continue reading India microcredit crisis analysis
Finally a reporter who actually attempts to explain the objective facts on the current microfinance crisis in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Microfinance by the Numbers by Eric Bellman Here are a few highlights: Default rates by borrowers were ~2% before the politicians intervened and now have risen to 50% since they instructed borrowers… Continue reading India microfinance crisis by the numbers
CGAP (part of The World Bank) has recently produced an analysis of SKS Microfinance IPO in India. This is the first IPO of an Indian MFI. The IPO was 13 times oversubscribed … that is, cialis 13 times more demand than availability of IPO shares. SKS priced at the high end of their range with… Continue reading SKS Microfinance IPO Report
Slavery by Mahatma Phule Slavery was written around 1900 as an expose on the caste system in India. As a reformer and social activist, Phule (along with his wife) advocated for women’s education and sought to bring light on the devastating “slavery of the mind” which enabled the upper caste peoples (particularly the Brahmin caste)… Continue reading Slavery book review
Norman Borlaug, aged 95, died this past Saturday. In 1999, the Atlantic Monthly estimated that his efforts (along with the people he trained and institutes he founded) had saved more than one billion lives … almost all in developing countries. [Thanks to Gregg Easterbrook who posted op-ed piece today.] You’re probably asking … what the… Continue reading The man who saved 1 billion lives
I was recently in India and had the chance to meet with a number of microfinance CEOs, bankers and insiders in the microfinance industry including Unitus, Unitus Capital and Unitus Equity Fund staff. One of my key inquiries was how was the global financial crisis affecting MFIs ability to access capital. Accessing capital from 3rd… Continue reading India microfinance and tightening credit markets
I recently blogged about how the caste system was being lived out on the streets of India in the life of one very poor dalit woman. About a month ago, (yes, I’m behind on blogging) the Wall Street Journal wrote a front-page weekend edition piece called “Caste Away” about a dalit (aka an Untouchable) who… Continue reading The Caste System in India Lives
Good article in Fortune magazine titled: India, generic The Superpower? Think Again by Cait Murphy. She points out that India has done a marvelous job in building a revenue (and tax) generating IT sector employing 1 million people, drugs but it has only 7 million employed in the formal manufacturing sector vs. 100 million people… Continue reading India, the superpower?
Defeat Poverty 