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The Economist: Power to the people…

Posted on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 15:35

Technology and development: A growing number of initiatives are promoting bottom-up ways to deliver energy to the world’s poor
Sep 2nd 2010
AROUND 1.5 billion people, or more than a fifth of the world’s population, have no access to electricity, and a billion more have only an unreliable and intermittent supply. Of the people without [...]

India: Top 100 Microfinance Institutions in the World…

Posted on Sun, 08/22/2010 - 22:00

For the third year running, MIX has released it’s Composite Ranking of the performance of microfinance institutions and Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd is the highest ranked Indian MFI at No 4 . Next comes SKS Microfinance at No 7, followed by Spandana at No 8. BASIX is ranked at No 11, SHARE at No 12 [...]

WSJ: Confessions of a Micro-Financier…

Posted on Wed, 08/11/2010 - 19:01

August 11, 2010, 5:38 PM IST
By Bijou George and Eric Bellman
Microfinance doesn’t help the very poor.
While the argument that all the attention the microlending industry attracts sometimes diverts funds from reaching programs that need it more is not new, India Real Time was surprised to see it outlined by [...]

Bloomberg: Hedge Funds Gamble on Poor in `Simpsons’ Farce…

Posted on Fri, 08/06/2010 - 11:53

By William Pesek – // Aug 4, 2010 3:00 PM EST
Betting on the poor has never been this profitable or this tasteless.
Just ask the good folks at George Soros’s Quantum (M) Ltd., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & [...]

Washington Times: Micro-finance: Let’s get it going in U.S…

Posted on Thu, 08/05/2010 - 14:31

Wednesday, August 4, 2010 – Making Change by Donna Rae Scheffert
Northfield, MN – 8/4/10 Micro-finance provides small amounts of money to local entrepreneurs. These borrowers have often been turned away by commercial banks. They may lack the necessary capital to support business development and business growth.
Muhammad Yunus first lent out [...]

Gallup: Few Sub-Saharan Africans Aware of Local Microfinance Options…

Posted on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 10:16

Forty-three percent say lenders aren’t available
by Jenny Marlar
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Residents in sub-Saharan African countries report a wide range of awareness about the availability of microfinance lending in their communities, suggesting these institutions remain locally inaccessible to many who would benefit most from using them. Malawians (65%) and Ugandans (63%) are [...]

Bloomberg: Soros-Backed SKS Microfinance Seeks as Much as $347 Million in Indian IPO…

Posted on Mon, 07/26/2010 - 19:05

By Ruth David – // Jul 26, 2010 12:25 AM CST
SKS Microfinance Ltd., the Indian lender backed by Sequoia Capital and George Soros, raised its initial public offering to as much as 16.3 billion rupees ($347 million) after [...]

MicroRate announces the release of new study…

Posted on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 15:54

Press Release: Microfinance investor demand rises in spite of financial crisis and decreased demands for funding

ARLINGTON, Virginia, 20 July 2010. MicroRate published its State of Microfinance Investment: The 2010 MicroRate MIV Survey highlighting that interest in microfinance funds remains strong despite the recession.

Microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) are [...]

Microfinance: Back to the Drawing Board…

Posted on Sun, 07/18/2010 - 15:08

Despite the hype surrounding microfinance as an answer to solving world poverty, new research shows it isn’t the savior economists envisioned.
By Brad Wittwer
Yohane Mdeme owns a food market in Tanzania. Though poor and with little to no collateral, he applied for a loan of $850 through Kiva.org to expand his [...]

Maoists, mafia, MLAs and moneylenders: they are external, extortionist threats…

Posted on Fri, 07/16/2010 - 15:33

Sanjiv Shankaran, sanjiv.s@livemint.com
New Delhi-
Vikram Akula, chairman of SKS Microfinance Ltd, is arguably the most controversial figure in India’s nascent microfinance industry. As SKS’ initial public offering (IPO) approaches, the first among microfinance companies, Akula spoke in an interview about his unabashed support for a commercial approach to the business of lending [...]