'Women' as a political constituency appears to be an idea that has come of age. It is changing India in ways that we only dimly understand, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
The United Nations has launched 2005 as the 'International year of microcredit', asserting that the innovative financing scheme can help the world's poor overcome poverty.
Most studies suggest that microcredit is beneficial but only to a limited extent and the reality is less attractive than the promise.
The top performing microfinance institutions the world over are achieving high growth and profitability.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development is launching a non-banking financial company targetting the microcredit space in the country.
Bangladesh descended into chaos on Monday as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina surreptitiously resigned and fled the country in a military aircraft while the Army stepped in to fill the power vacuum.
Muhammad Yunus proved that he was neither an armchair economist nor a slogan mongering political activist, but a doer destined to do what Mahatma Gandhi said -- to remove every tear from every eye, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
Life has come full circle for Nobel laureate Professor Mohammad Yunus, who faced persecution during Sheikh Hasina's regime for embezzlement, is now all set to head of the interim government in Bangladesh after she resigned and fled the country.
Being creative and turning every available resource into a business is vital to improving the lives of those in poverty. Poor people often do not need outsiders to tell them about business opportunities.
A liquidity crunch has hit several microfinance institutions with the flow of funds 'temporarily' drying up after the largest MFI lender, ICICI Bank, halted payments in early January.
/We will stay away from corporate loans,' C S Ghosh, managing director and chief executive officer of Bandhan Bank, tells Namrata Acharya.
Microcredit Foundation of India, which is running microcredit programme in Tamil Nadu in partnership with ICICI Bank, has fixed a target of providing credit of over Rs1250 crore (Rs 12.5 billion) to one million women by March 2008.
Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been accused of stashing some $100 million originally for microcredit operations of his Grameen Bank to his another venture in 1996, breaching agreements with donors and violating the country's financial rules.
Dr Tara Thiagarajan is the chairperson and managing director of the Rs 200-crore (Rs 2 billion) Madura Micro Finance Ltd. She is also the director of Microcredit Foundation of India.
In its first ever list of World's Top 50 Microfinance Institutions, the US business magazine has named Bangalore-based Bandhan at the second position.
Citibank India will increase the interest rate on certain loan products, including home loans, due to rise in cost of funds and new risk weight norms.
Bandhan expects to have a loan portfolio of Rs 14,500 crore.
This year's Laureates have shown how the problem of global poverty can be tackled by breaking it down into a number of smaller - but more precise - questions at individual or group levels, he Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
The Nobel laureate filed an application before the High Court.
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