Welcome address by Y C Nanda

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning to all. Let me welcome all the delegates the guest speakers the dignitaries and important guest over the course of the next two-day. Since the first microfinance summit, nearly 8 years back, the summit has changed a lot. A lot of value has been added to it over the years. One of the things is the State of the Sector report. Many thanks to Prabu who did it for the first two years and Srinivasan who has been doing it for the past few years. 
I see some light coming out of the tunnel. The Andhra crisis that happened was very unfortunate. It must be written and must have been spoken about it. Part of the fault is on the regulator. There should have been a regulator looking at what has been happening. That has contributed to the present state of affairs. Whatever has happened in Andhra is all gone now and we’ve seen something good come out of it. Now we see regulations being pushed forward and that is a good sign. 
Million and millions of families have suffered a lot from. Institutions that have suffered may recover but the lack of funds has had serious consequences on their lives. These people have paid for the mistakes that we have all made. Fortunately, things are looking up differently now. 
This initiative is most welcome. We should have started this one or two years earlier. The summit is very carefully planned. There is about 10 plenary sessions and 20 breakaway sessions. Therefore many experts will be able to share with you and cover vast topics.

About the speaker: Mr. Y. C. Nanda is currently the Chairman of Microfinance India Advisory Group and Chairman of Agriculture Finance Corporation. Mr. Y. C. After an initial career with the State Bank of India and the Reserve Bank of India, Mr. Nanda joined NABARD when it was first formed in 1983. Mr. Y. C. Nanda is the former chairman of NABARD.