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Dubai’s Legatum invests Rs125 cr in Share Microfin, picks 51% stake
In the second major investment by a foreign investor in an Indian microfinance firm, Legatum Capital, a Dubai-based privately-owned finance firm, committed a $25 million (Rs125 crore) investment in Share Microfin Ltd, a Hyderabad-based microfinance institution which is India?s largest. Recently, Sequoia Capital, one of the largest venture capital firms in the world, led a consortium that invested $11.5 million in SKS Microfinance, India?s second-largest microfinance f...
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- South Asia
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Microfinance Institutions Act soon in Parliament
The micro financing sector in Sri Lanka is to be streamlined under a regulatory framework to prevent aid wastage, duplication of funds and corruption in the implementation of projects aimed at alleviation of poverty which is one of the prime objectives of the government. No government could solve this national issue on their own, according to microfinance experts, adding that it?s a collective responsibility of all sectors, including private, non-government and the...
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- South Asia
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Citibank India & SKS Announce USD 44 Million Rural Microfinance Program
SKS Microfinance and Citibank today announced a USD 44 Million (Rs.1.8 Billion) groundbreaking financing program involving Citibank India purchasing loans that are originated by SKS. Representing Citibank’s increased foray into rural microfinance, the program will deliver income-generating loans of between Rs.5000 to Rs.20,000 to a population of over 200,000 unbanked customers spread across 7,000 villages in 11 States of the country by financial year 2007-08. The partnership combines SKS’...
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- South Asia
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Green businesses attract Rs.100 crores investment from venture capitalists
There is a need to get a structured plan in a sustainable ecological mode to attract venture capitalists to India, said Dr. Nachiket Mor, Chairman, New Ventures India Steering Committee and Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank at a seminar on Emerging Business Opportunities in India and Venture Capital Finance. Dr. Mor also announced Rs.100 crore investment towards the innovation and development of green businesses in India. Th...
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- South Asia
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Microfinance Bill Sends Confusing Messages
A move to review and regulate when and how microfinance providers should be allowed to accept savings deposits is picking up speed. In a bid to police the booming sector, finance minister P. Chidambaram introduced a Bill to regulate small micro-credit institutions through the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) requiring them to meet more stringent accounting standards. Continue reading ...
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- South Asia
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World Bank Study reveals $5 trillion market
The poor have substantial purchasing power too ? purely because there are so many of them. The 4 billion people across the world, who stand at the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) have purchasing power of $5 trillion (Rs 2,25,00,000 crore) according to a new report released on Monday by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank. The report, The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid, measures the purch...
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- South Asia
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Pyramid power
Will seamstresses in Guatemala or poor farmers in India pay $3 for a pair of reading glasses? It seems unlikely. Such people are among the three billion or so who earn only a dollar or two a day. And yet Scojo Vision, an American optical firm, is betting that they will pay that princely sum for its spectacles. The notion that only subsidies or handouts can provide the world’s poorest with essential services such as health care is wrong, says Jordan Kassalow, Scojo’s co-founder a...
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- South Asia
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India poised for pharmaceutical boom
As the cost of healthcare rises worldwide, Indian pharmaceuticals have positioned themselves to take advantage. For instance, Indian drugmakers now have 75 plants approved to make drugs for the American market - the most of any nation except the United States itself. Also, like Indian IT a decade ago, pharmaceuticals are on the cusp of an outsourcing trend that could become a $3-billion-a-year industry by 2010. During a lifetime spent treating AIDS patients from Asia to the deepest reaches of Af...
- Region
- South Asia
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