Microcredit

The first time I heard about microcredit , I was terribly excited by the idea. It was during a meeting with an NGO and I was amazed by what a small amount of money can do to the poorest of the poor.It suddenly seemed like a panacea for all the ills of the poor . I immediately started googling to know more about it and one name kept coming up everywhere -- Muhammad Yunus & Grameen Bank. Here is his interview on Knowledge@Wharton.

India can reap tremendous benefits through Microcredit. The network of NGO's,SHG's ( Self Help Groups) & Rural,co-operative Banks alongwith NABARD and with big names like Vinod Khosla , Citibank , ICICI ( in partnetship with Grameen) devoting their money , we could hope to uplift our poor through self-reliance.

But the Key as FM , P.Chidambaram has rightly said is not to treat this as charity but with a high degree of professionalism . No more NPA's and the target should be to strive for 100% recovery rate. This is what is " Business with a social perspective".