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Bangladesh Ready to Compromise on Yunus Dispute
Bangladesh says it is ready to compromise with Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus, who was dismissed as chief of the microfinance bank he founded. The country’s finance ministry said Wednesday the government is ready to find a solution to the issue and that Yunus must come forward to help resolve the matter. The statement comes a day after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake expressed concern about the effect of Yunus’ departure from Grameen Bank on civil s...
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- South Asia
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Tata Signs up MIT Energy Guru for Power from Water
Bangalore: In the first such effort, Tata group chairman Ratan Tata has signed on a leading scientist from the globally renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to commercialize cutting-edge research that promises to produce cheap power from water. Daniel Nocera, a professor of chemistry and energy, and his group of elite scientists at MIT attracted attention from Tata when he heard they had found a way towards one of science’s holy grails-to imitate photosynthesis, the ...
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- South Asia
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Nokia Extends Mobile Money Service to Union Bank in India
Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) , the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, has started supplying mobile banking services for a Union Bank of India offering aimed at phone customers who don’t have bank accounts. The Union Bank Money Powered by Nokia service is available in Gurgaon and will be released nationwide over the next few months, the Mumbai-based bank s...
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- South Asia
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Microfinance Under Fire
By DAVID BORNSTEIN At Fixes, our focus is typically on implementing new or underutilized ideas to help those in need. But sometimes it’s just as important to protect institutions that are already working well. Which is why I’m writing today about the Grameen Bank, the Bangladeshi organization that won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with its founder Muhammad...
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- South Asia
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Accion, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation Invest In Social BPO Firm
Bangalore-based BPO Vindhya e-Infomedia (Vindhya), which employs people who are differently-abled, has raised an undisclosed amount of venture funding from social sector investors Accion International and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Vindhya provides data management and processing services to clients in the IT and microfinance space. Accion is making the investment through Frontier Investments Group, an early-stage equity fund that invests in breakthrough technologies and disrup...
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- South Asia
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Tata Motors Developing Cheaper Trucks
MUMBAI - Tata Motors Ltd. is developing cheaper versions of its Prima range of trucks and plans to start launching them by the end of 2011 to boost demand, a senior company executive said recently. The new trucks will be sold at price points up to 400,000 rupees ($8863.3) lower than those of the current range, the executive told Dow Jones Newswires. "We are currently working on cutting costs th...
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- South Asia
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Lack of Funding Still Plagues India Microlenders
Six months after the state of Andhra Pradesh slapped restrictive laws on India’s microlenders, availability of funding continues to plague the once-thriving lenders to the poor despite official encouragement. Confidence building is needed to revive financing for microfinance operations, said Mathew Titus, executive director of Sa-Dhan, an industry body. "You need somebody to step up and say the industry is fine," Titus said on the sidelines of a conference organised by Sa-Dhan...
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- South Asia
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IFC Invests in New Microfinance Bank to Help Pakistan?s Farmers Get Loans
Islamabad, Pakistan. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is improving access to finance for Pakistan’s farmers by investing to transform microcredit operations of the National Rural Support Program-one of the country’s leading microfinance institutions-into a regulated, deposit-taking microfinance bank. IFC will...
- Region
- South Asia
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