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Prince of Poverty Leaves Behind Questionable Legacy
Vikram Akula was the golden boy of microfinance when he launched his company SKS. How did things go so horribly wrong?. The story of Vikram Akula is almost like a classic Greek tragedy with epic peaks, troughs and betrayals that could easily make up a Hollywood movie. Akula remains a controversial character, whose very name incites admiration and criticism in equal measure. Some say that he gave birth to the microfinance industry as we know it in India. Others say that his model of lend...
- Region
- South Asia
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Diary of a Social Entrepreneur
Asister organization of the World Economic Forum, the Schwab Foundation has been awarding social entrepreneurs in South-East Asia for five years. It chose Neelam Chhiber of Industree Crafts Foundation as the India Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 in partnership with the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation (the foundation is the social wing of the Jubilant Bhartia Group, whose promoters are closely related to those of ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Can Venture Capital Save The World?
Bahawalpur in eastern Pakistan is known for magnificent palaces built during the British Raj, but in the dusty part of town where most of the 400,000 residents actually live, four dozen farmers have gathered in the decidedly unpalatial concrete building that houses the local branch of the National Rural Support Programme Bank. Their darkened, sun-creased faces testify to the toll of tilling soil in one of the hotter places on Earth (at 11 a.m. in mid-June it’s alread...
- Region
- South Asia
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Social Enterprises See Funding Dip, but Investors Still Upbeat
The value of investments in India’s social enterprises has fallen by around 7% this year as investors struggle to identify companies that not only cater to the bottom of the pyramid by offering products and services at the right price points, but also provide sustainable returns for investors. Excluding microfinance institutions (MFIs), the investor-backed six social enterprises have put in $21.6 million (around Rs.112.5 crore) this year so far, compared with eight such investments ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Tata PE Buys 10% in Ginger Hotels
MUMBAI: Tata Capital’s private equity fund has acquired a 10% stake in Roots Corporation, which runs budget hotel chain Ginger. The stake-purchase in Ginger was completed by the $550 million Tata Opportunities Fund and it marks the one-year-old fund’s debut investment, said sources familiar with the matter. Tata Opportunities Fund, spearheaded by Mukund Rajan, is a third party private equity fu...
- Region
- South Asia
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Caterpillar Foundation Partners With Water.org to Expand WaterCredit in India, Indonesia
PEORIA, Ill., Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT ) today announced that the Caterpillar Foundation and Water.org announced a $3 million partnership to reach more than 218,000 people with clean water and sanitation over the next three years. The program will support a significant expansion of Water.org’s WaterCredit activities in India, and also fund a mark...
- Region
- South Asia
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How a Classic Model of Social Commerce Can Teach the World How to Save
In a dusty hallway in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, two women barter used clothes for pots and pans. The going rate today is ten pieces of used clothing for one new tin pot. This is the informal economy, growing as the world’s population continues to urbanise in mega-cities like Mumbai and São Paulo. In Mumbai, where 60% of residents live in slums, activity in the informal economy, from bartering to neighborhood savings groups to co-ops, rivals the scale of the formal economy of...
- Region
- South Asia
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Vodafone Increases Banking Options in Rural India with Mobile Service
Vodafone India and HDFC Bank have announced plans to launch a mobile banking service across the country next year after a successful trial period, according to an Economic Times article . The service, which is called ’M-Paisa’ (named after its monetary unit, the p...
- Region
- South Asia
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