The poster boy of microfinance is now seeking some anonymity. In Andhra Pradesh, the epicentre of the worst crisis faced by microfinance in India, SKS Microfinance is playing down its identity and going into preservation mode. At its modest office in a residential colony in Warangal district, India’s largest microfinance company has taken down its board. At its head office in upmarket Begumpet in Hyderabad, it hung a cloth mesh...

Among the several resolutions passed on Thursday by the 9th conference of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) in Kanpur, one of the most important ones was on the need to regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs), which are exercising an iron grip on poor women debtors in several States of the country. The resolution drew attention to the “spate of suicides as a result of the harassment and strong-arm tactics employed...

The term “bottom of the pyramid” (BOP), coined by the late C K Prahalad, became wildly attractive in the early noughties, in part because the concept, which suggests that it is possible and legit to make money from the poor, provided a leavening justification for the animal spirits of capitalism in poor countries like India and China with their growing list of Forbes billionaires. On the verge of the second decade...

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) and Dindigul police have undertaken a joint initiative to create employment opportunities for tribals, especially women, in the Kodaikanal region. The initiative is aimed at ensuring that the tribals do not support anti-social elements or Naxalites due to lack of sustainable livelihood. The KVIC is also expanding this initiative in southern districts such as Theni and Kanyakumari, K. Krishnaswamy, Director, KVIC Madurai Division, told...

Sample some data on the microfinance performance in India: According to the data provided by www.mixmarket.org, microfinance in India reached close to 270 lakh active borrowers in 2009, with the average loan size close to Rs 8,000. This translates into total borrowing to over Rs 20,000 crore. Though this number seems large, it represents only 0.3% of our GDP. Thus, large swathes of poor, both in our villages and urban...