By Stewart Craine, Founder-Barefoot Power In 2006, a Noble Peace Prize was given for the poverty-alleviating impacts of microfinance. In 2007, a Nobel Peace Prized was given for environmental impacts of clean energy. There is no clearer indication that these are major challenges of our era, yet the overlap of microfinance and the environment has barely reached the tiniest fraction of its potential. This is good ... Read More

The people living in the bottom of the pyramid too dream big. They always wish that their children should not be like them and be better educated and employed. But they lack financial strength. And Nirantara wants to address this issue. Nirantara Community Services & Nirantara Foundation Nirantara Community Services (Nirantara, in short, www.nirantara.org) initiated Nirantara Foundation, a trust by legal status, to promote quality education ... Read More

By Dr. Souren Ghosal It is really interesting and heartening to observe the rapid growth of micro financing institutions in developing countries irrespective of the facts that it has neither impacted much on poverty alleviation nor on economic growth of the country. At best the beneficial effect that could be acknowledged so far is that it has helped poor to finance their trade and maintain their ... Read More

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 25, 2009: Access Development Services is inviting the applications for Institution of the Year Award and Contribution to the Sector Award. The award is sponsored by The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. The awards will be presented on the inaugural day of the Microfinance India Summit – October 26, 2009. Read More

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 2, 2009: Hyderabad-based Asmitha Microfin Limited has closed its second round of equity infusion with BlueOrchard Private Equity Fund pumping in Rs 50 crore. Asmitha Microfin Limited, a Hyderabad-based microfinance institution and one of the top five microfinance institutions in India in terms of portfolio size, presently serves over 1.16 million clients with a loan portfolio of about Rs 745 crore ($165 million) ... Read More

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 4, 2009: Unitus Inc. and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation have decided to launch a Social Performance Management Implementation Project (SPMIP) to assess the impact made by microfinance institutions. Social performance management (SPM) envisages setting clear social objectives (e.g., improved quality of housing, healthcare, etc.), monitoring and assessing progress toward achieving these goals, and using this information to improve the performance and impact of MFIs. Read More Read More

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 2, 2009: Hyderabad-based Asmitha Microfin Limited has closed its second round of equity infusion with BlueOrchard Private Equity Fund pumping in Rs 50 crore. Asmitha Microfin Limited, a Hyderabad-based microfinance institution and one of the top five microfinance institutions in India in terms of portfolio size, presently serves over 1.16 million clients with a loan portfolio of about Rs 745 crore ($165 million) as of July 31, 2009. Asmitha has a network of 485 branches across 127 districts in 13 states in India. Read More Read More

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 1, 2009: Achieving 9 per cent growth rate is possible when millions of people at the bottom of the pyramid are brought into the banking network, said Dr K.C. Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, in New Delhi at the 62nd International Banking Summer School (IBSS) jointly organized by the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance and Indian Banks’ Association on Monday. This is possible when financial Read More Read More

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 1, 2009: The Skoll Foundation has named its first award recipient for its 2010 cohort, Civic Ventures. Founded by Marc Freedman 10 years ago with the goal of finding caring, Civic Ventures committed adults to help young people growing up in poverty -- as mentors, teachers and youth workers. Read More Read More