Entrepeneur Gets Big Banks to Back Very Small Loans

This is an interesting article from the May 15, 2006 issue of the Wall Street Journal on how an individual went to India one summer and upon seeing the discrepancy of lifestyle between the poor in India and his suburban lifestyle decided to embark on a microfinance project, which eventually drew in major banks such as HSBC and Citigroup. It is a great example of a single individual making a difference in the world. Unfortuantely, I can't get the link to work. However, if you are interested in the entire article just send an email to hdhindsa@gmail.com.



A great site for microfinance is www.globalgiving.com. You can pick a project by theme, e.g. education, health, gender and equality as well as by region. You can then give money online...check it out...

Microlending-for-Profit Effort

In India Draws Business

From Citigroup, HSBC

Ms. Dobbala's Baby Buffalo

By ERIC BELLMAN

May 15, 2006; Page A1

SHIVNOOR, India -- Vikram Akula runs a company that doles out loans of $100 or less to desperately poor villagers so they can buy a water buffalo or a bicycle. But he's hardly a typical do-gooder.

Mr. Akula, the 37-year-old founder of SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd., is at the forefront of the latest trend in "microlending," or making tiny loans that help entrepreneurs lift themselves up from the lowest rungs of poverty. Long the province of charitable institutions, microlending is starting to attract the attention of big business. Intrigued by India's red-hot economy and potential market of more than a billion consumers, financial giants such as Citigroup Inc., ABN Amro Holding NV and HSBC Holdings PLC have already provided millions of dollars for SKS to lend out. SKS, in turn, says it has notched up healthy profits for the past three years.

[Vikram Akula]

"This can work driven only by greed," says Mr. Akula, a one-time McKinsey & Co. consultant who was born in India and grew up in Schenectady, N.Y. "That's the magic of it."...