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Inclusion Banking to Turn Into Profits Soon: Union Bank
MUMBAI, APR 24: Union Bank of India, the fifth largest public sector lender with over Rs 3.55 lakh crore in assets, has said its financial inclusion project, called the ’new bankable class’, will turn profitable sooner than expected. "Going by our experience with the financial inclusion project, which we call ’banking for the new bankable class’, this will turn in profits sooner than later, especially when the cash transfer facilities under Adhaar s...
- Region
- South Asia
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Govt’s Microfinance Model Promises to Empower Poor
GANDHINAGAR: At a time when controversy surrounding microfinance institutions charging higher-than-usual interest rates from its poor borrowers - mainly womenfolk - refuses to die down in Andhra Pradesh and some other parts of India , Gujarat government claims to have resolved the issue, coming up with a new model envisaging, to quote a document, "a ...
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- South Asia
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Grameen FDN, Grameen Capital India announce US$7 MN funding to Cashpor
Grameen Foundation and Grameen Capital India recently announced USD7 million (Rs. 315 million) in funding for Cashpor Micro Credit through a guarantee pool for socially-focused Indian microfinance institutions (MFIs). The financing from IndusInd Bank and another private sector bank in India was backed by US$980,000 in guarantees from Grameen Foundation and arranged by Grameen Capital India. These were the first guarantees to be placed through the US$ 8 million initiative that was ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Bangladesh’s Largest NGO Admits Role in Microfinance Crisis
Bangladesh’s largest network of NGOs - BRAC has admitted fuelling the micro-finance debt crisis together with other microfinance institutions by pushing excess loans to the borrowers. Surplus funds in the absence of proper regulation led to the collapse of the microfinance industry. Dhaka: Lack of regulation and a surplus of donor funds in Bangladesh’s microcredit industry have led to NGOs pushing loans to over-indebted borrowers, says BRAC, the world’s largest develop...
- Region
- South Asia
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Rich Pickings
MENTION microfinance in Asia and thoughts usually turn to India, which is struggling to regulate the industry, and Bangladesh, where Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank, has been turfed out of his job. Indonesia offers a brighter picture. There, a range of lenders is successfully funnelling credit to its entrepreneurial poor. They include Bank Rakyat Indonesia, a state-owned behemoth that had a whopping $7.4 billion in microloans outstanding in September and ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Generating the Unlikeliest of Heroes
DOHA, QATAR - Persuading the Indian immigration authorities to grant entry visas to illiterate African grandmothers who claim to be trainee solar engineers is no easy task. Yet, Sanjit Bunker Roy, an Indian educator, has, since 2005, succeeded in bringing 140 such women to the Barefoot College, a school he founded...
- Region
- South Asia
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Investing in Agriculture Key to Ending Extreme Rural Poverty in South Asia ? UN
South Asia continues to have the largest concentrations of poor rural populations despite the fact that the wider Asia-Pacific region has made major strides in combating poverty, a United Nations agency said today, stressing that agriculture is key to poverty alleviation. The study by the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), entitled Agriculture - Pathways to Prosperity in Asia and the Pacific , shows that rural poverty rates have dropped only slightly in t...
- Region
- South Asia
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Danone Looks at Measured Expansion In Country
French dairy firm Danone is chalking out a measured expansion plan in India. The corporation, which reported $20 billion in global revenues for 2010, has been in India for a little over a year and has introduced yogurt, dahi (curd) and smoothie product range in Pune and Mumbai. It is now focusing on Hyderabad. Danone Dairy India Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sudip Dasgupta told Business Standard they were expanding in a measured way as they wanted to get the backend cold-chain distribut...
- Region
- South Asia
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