NextBillion - A WDI Publication

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...

Source

The Economist (link opens in a new window)

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...

Source

The Tribune (link opens in a new window)

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...

Source

The New York Times (link opens in a new window)

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

Tata promises Rs 1 lakh car by 2008

Excerpt: Tata Motors on Friday said it would launch the much-touted Rs one lakh car in early 2008, as the company had completed its styling and designing and tested the prototypes within the plant. Tata Group Chief Ratan Tata told shareholders that the launch of the car would create a new paradigm in low-cost personal transport, carve out a new market segment and reach a broader base of the pyramid. ...

Source

Hindustan Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Indian medical care goes global

Excerpt: With hospitals in India’s cities boasting first world medical care at third world prices, the country is poised for a major share in the multibillion dollar global healthcare market....

Source

Aljazeera.net (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

BANGALORE: HP on Wednesday announced a revolutionary pen-based technology that allows users to compute in their respective languages even without prior knowledge of English or typing. The gesture-based keyboard [GKB], developed by researchers at HP Labs India, also holds the potential for Indian languages derived from the Devanagari ? Tamil scripts and Kannada scripts ? to be used in a similar manner. This is to benefit more than 1.5 billion non-Engli...

Source

The Hindu (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Life insurance coming to rural India, 1 town/day

Bajaj Allianz notches up some good numbers selling life insurance in India?s smaller towns. Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance was languishing among the also-rans about a year ago. Today, it is in the reckoning for the top slot among private sector life insurers. The credit for this goes to Sam Ghosh, Bajaj Allianz?s CEO and country head for Allianz, who transformed the company from a niche play to mass marketer. Ghosh was chosen to spearhead Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance in January 2004, after he deli...

Source

BusinessStandard.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia