Posts Tagged ‘India’

Microfinance Focus, April 12, 2010: Identifying Transparent Pricing as the emerging challenge for the microfinance industry world over, MFTransparency.org, a US based non-profit has launched its Transparent Pricing Initiative in India with 5 seminars across the country, in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai during April 12-19, 2010. Through the workshops, MFTransparency will share  the new industry standard for calculating interest rates for microcredit products. It ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Feb 24, 2010: ACCION is reaching the jungles of Brazil to provide its microfinance products to the microentrepreneurs living and working there. Called Microfinancas, ACCION’s new microfinance company will serve the Amazonas region, where the company said less than 10 percent of the 1.9 million low-income resident microentrepreneurs have access to financial services from a bank or microfinance organization. It was in Recife, ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Feb 18, 2010: mChek, a Mobile Money Solutions company has been certified by Western Union as a Mobile Money Transfer Vendor, said a statement from mChek. The certification under the Western Union Mobile Vendor Program was received after a technology integration and certification testing program, it said. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) around the globe can now partner with Western Union to offer ... Full story

By Naagesh Naaraayana Microfinance Focus, Jan. 4, 2010: India's mobile phones will reach more than the targeted half billion people by the end of 2010 or 60 per cent of the tele-density, going by the country's telecom ministry estimates. On the contrary, despite six decades of banking nationalization, denationalization and technological upgradation, India has failed to reach at least half the number telecom has reached in ... Full story

By Asma Azmi Microfinance Focus, Dec. 31, 2009: The International Finance Corp, the World Bank's private sector lender, aims to make about $1 billion a year in new investments in India over the coming few years, matching the level of recent years, said a report by Reuters last month quoting a top IFC executive. IFC had shown its interest in India in October when it raised $1.6 ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Nov.24, 2009: The latest 'University Meets Microfinance' Workshop has a mix of presentations from advanced econometric methods to online lending models operating in India. The workshop on "Microfinance Challenges in India" took place on November 6, 2009 in Berlin. Hosted by Allianz SE place, it was organized on the occasion of the Vision Summit with Microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus in Berlin. The presentations were made ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Oct. 5, 2009: A new report on microfinance sponsored by International Finance Corporation has ranked India number four while Peru topped the list among surveyed countries for having the best business conditions for microfinance. This is the second year in a row that Peru tops the charts in the Microscope Index, part of the microfinance report, which also is sponsored by the Multilateral ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 30, 2009: Rating agency CRISIL has formally announced its entry into independent equity research aimed at covering those companies which are not as big as the top 100 in the country. Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 18, 2009: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India office invites proposals from Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs), Associations or Consortium of MFIs for the design of innovation support in financial products and services suited to the livelihood needs of poor women and men. The documents required are detailed description of the proposed model, methodology and work plan and budget requirements. The last date is Oct. ... Full story

MicrofinanceFocus, July 23, 2009: Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani took over as head of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) on Thursday with a mandate to create a national database of identity details of citizens. The task ahead of Nilekani is to provide a unique indentification card to every citizen of India. This card will contain all details like the name, sex, address, marital status, photo, ... Full story

By Naagesh Naaraayana MicrofinanceFocus, July 21, 2009: The Reserve Bank of India has urged big IT firms to involve more in the cause of financial inclusion, which is a major challenge before the nation. Speaking to ET at a seminar on financial inclusion organised by consultancy firm Skoch in Mumbai last week, K. C. Chakrabarty, Deputy governor of RBI, said: “The scale of business in financial inclusion is so big that we need participation from big IT companies.” Mr Chakrabarty also said that the RBI will come out with more guidelines for the sector in a month's time. Full story