-
ICICI Bank betting big on SME business
The future of the SME business is very promising and ICICI Bank is ideally positioned to exploit the opportunity, Vijay Chandok, Senior General Manager (Small Enterprises Group), ICICI Bank, said here today. Many SMEs are in the investment mode to create capacities, quality processes and upgradation and modernisation of their facilities, he said, adding this constituted a huge opportunity in the segment for the country’s second largest commercial bank. &...
- Region
- South Asia
-
ICICI Venture mulls 4 specialised funds
ICICI Venture has also tied up with seven of its key investors in its private equity funds that will co-invest with them in acquisitions and buying of stakes in companies. The need for a small-cap fund was felt because ICICI?s current funds are for bigger deals, with an average size of $75 million. The small-cap fund will invest in smaller and emerging companies, which require a fund infusion of between $10 million and $50 million. ICICI Venture is planning to set up four new special...
- Region
- South Asia
-
Pertinent issues on SME finance in Bangladesh
Financial services for the poor have proved to be a powerful instrument for poverty reduction enabling the poor to build assets, increase incomes and reduce the vulnerability to economic stress. Today, access to credit is recognised as a ’right’ of people globally. Over the years, there has been phenomenal growth in activities of microcredit in many countries of the world and a transition in the paradigm and modalities of microcredit. Microcedit Summit Meeti...
- Region
- South Asia
-
Fighting poverty $1 at a time
Since its beginning, the micro-finance model of providing small loans to help expand or start a self-sustaining enterprise has helped more than 8.2 million of the world’s poorest people -- in at least 115 countries -- to stand on their feet. Excerpt: It all started with $50. In 1988, that’s what it took Noni Bala Ghosh to revive her family’s business of making sweets to sell in Kholshi, her tiny village in Bangladesh. Family members had given up the business because they c...
- Region
- South Asia
-
Microsharks
Rapid expansion of Indian microcredit leads to a turf war with the government. Excerpts: The dispute centres on one poor rural district, Krishna. Some women were reported to have killed themselves because they could not repay the MFIs. In March a top government official in Krishna temporarily shut 50 branch offices of four MFIs, seized and destroyed their records and told their borrowers not to repay their loans. He accused the microfinance groups of charging exorbitant rates. There h...
- Region
- South Asia
-
?Our mission is giving loans to the poor?
Vikram Akula, CEO of India?s fastest growing microfinance institution, speaks to Ramesh Kandula in Hyderabad about his poverty alleviation plan. Excerpts from the Interview: How big is SKS Microfinance in comparison with other such institutions in India? Today, SKS is the fastest growing microfinance institution in India. It is one of the top five la...
- Region
- South Asia
-
Microloans May Work, but There Is Dispute in India Over Who Will Make Them
Tyler Cowen, co-author of Marginal Revolution , reports for the New York Times from Hyderabad: My visit suggested that microfinance is working, but it is often more corporate, more commercial and under more attack than I had expected. He goes on to describe the tension between state-sponsored microfinance programs and private ones, with interesting anecdotes sprinkled in. MICROFINANCE is b...
- Region
- South Asia
-
Tata offers Rs 25 cr annual medical aid to poor
Excerpt: The Tata Group and three other top business houses have joined hands with the Jharkhand government to ensure medical treatment to the state’s below poverty line population. Apart from the Tatas, Birla, Essar and Jindal group have formed the Sarva Swasthya Mission Trust -- which will be the first of its kind private-public partnership in the country. This project will provide health coverage and medical treatment to the poorest of the poor in...
- Region
- South Asia