Report on Microfinance

Linkages between banks and external entities may be established under two broad models; (i) Business Facilitator Model wherein banks may use civil society organizations (CSOs) and others for undertaking non-financial service and (ii) Business Correspondent Model wherein institutional agents/other external entities could support the banks for extending financial services.

Read the full article release from PIB

Micro-finance in disaster control

An another column writing in Business Standard by Keya Sarkar on Microfinance

Read the full article here

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), government of India, is planning to have “Preliminary meeting on Micro Finance” to be held in New Delhi on August 3. Others invited were mostly CEOs of some of the larger finance companies, the joint secretary (B&I), ministry of finance; secretary, Sadhan, the national micro finance association; and H R Khan, CGM and Principal, College of Agricultural Banking.

Serious focus on Microfinance by major Banks

India’s Banks major financial institutions are now starting to focus on Microfinance, Major Banks like ABN Amro (ABN), Standard Chartered (SCBFF), HSBC (HBC), and Citigroup (C) are moving into the microfinance sector.

Read the full article in Business Week

Top 100 Global Universities

The Complete List of Top 100 Global Universities had been publihsed in MSNBC. The Ranking has been done by Newsweek magazine. Click here to see the complete List

The Top 10 are:
1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Yale University
4. California Institute of Technology
5. University of California at Berkeley
6. University of Cambridge
7. Massachusetts Institute Technology
8. Oxford University
9. University of California at San Francisco
10. Columbia University

Some criticisms have been raised in Korean Times and Korea Herald articles.

World Drug Report 2006

World Drug Report 2006 has been published by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

The report has been given in two volumes:

Volume 1: Analysis – Full Report
Volume 2: Statistics – Full Report

The Chapterwise report is available in PDF format. Click here to view the page

America’s Best Colleges 2007

America’s Best Colleges 2007 ranking has been published by U.S. News & World Report. Princeton University Stood 1^st in the ranking.

Click here to see the full list online

Top 10:
1. Princeton University (NJ)
2. Harvard University (MA)
3. Yale University (CT)
4. California Institute of Technology
4. Stanford University (CA)
4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology
7. University of Pennsylvania
8. Duke University (NC)
9. Dartmouth College (NH)
9. Columbia University (NY)
9. University of Chicago

Related article in Yahoo News too

To find rankings by Programs, Masters Universites and so on Click Here

Micro-finance Productive @ 40%

An Article in Business Standard shows that “Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) a consortium of 33 development agencies that support micro-finance, has found nothing wrong in micro-finance institutions (MFIs) charging up to 40% interest from poor borrowers.”

Another Mention is…
Making a hypothetical comparison, it says if a big lender lends $10,00,000 to a single borrower and a micro lender makes 10,000 loans of $100 each to build the same size of loan book, assuming the big lender’s loan is repaid quarterly, it has to process four payment transactions per year. A micro-lender’s borrowers, however, probably make repayments monthly or even more frequently, generating at least 1.2 lakh transactions per year. While the big lender’s administrative cost is $30,000 per year, that of a micro-lender is at least $2,00,000.

Great Mission to the poor

‘Our mission is giving loans to the poor’ is an article from Tribune India

In an Interview, Vikram Akula (SKS Microfinance) shares his vision and plans in Indian growth through Micro-finance

SKS is focused on rapidly expanding into as many geographic markets as possible. Our objective is to achieve the “7 by 7 by 7″ goal: 700,000 customers and Rs 700 crore disbursement by March 2007.

ICICI for Rural India

An Article from Times Now.TV: Few quotes from the article are as follows:

Elaborating on the banks plan, Mr K V Kamath, MD and CEO, ICICI Bank said: “When we had started moving into the consumer care business, the business probably had an annual market of about Rs 30,000-Rs 40,000 crore. This business has grown to over Rs 200,000 crore now. In the past few years, it has grown at the rate of 30 to 40 per cent. ”

The bank’s rural asset base is worth around Rs 18,000 crore and is expected to grow further. ICICI Bank is looking at expanding its rural delivery channels through branches at major agriculture centres and is looking at partnerships with around 200 micro finance institutions (MFIs). In fact, the bank disbursed around Rs 2,500 crore to over three million customers through micro finance institutions in 2005-06.

Transparency in Microfinance

With the demand for micro-finance (MF) in the country expected to touch Rs 50,000 crore, experts have recommended financial standards, ethical norms, transparency and accountability mechanisms to help the MF sector become a part of the formal financial sector in reaching out to the needy.

According to a study by Sa-Dhan, the MF institutions(MFIs) may achieve a total outstanding portfolio of over Rs 12,800 crore by March 2010. This will imply an addition of Rs 11,709 crore over the outstanding portfolio estimate of Rs 1,095 crore as on March 2005.

Click here to read the full article from Business Standard