Citi Foundation
access
Microfinance India Group of Advisors
Y C Nanda, Chairman, ACCESS- ASSIST (Former Chairman, NABARD)
Vijayalakshmi Das, Chairperson ACCESS Development Services &
Managing Director, Ananya Finance for Inclusive Growth Pvt Ltd
ORGANISING PARTNERS
Brij Mohan, Sector Expert
ACCESS Development Services
Alok Misra, Chief Executive Officer, Micro-Credit Ratings International
Ltd. (M-CRIL )
Arindom Datta, Senior Director & Head Rural & Development Banking/
Advisory, Rabobank India
ACCESS is a not-for-profit company whose overall aim is to
promote sustainable and innovative livelihoods promotion models
to improve the economic well being of primary producers. ACCESS access
works to build inclusive value chains that enable greater accrual of
benefits for the producers. The ACCESS programmes on the ground largely
focus on enhancing productivity of small and marginal farmers. ACCESS also
provides technical support services to large poverty reduction programmes
and a few of its initiatives seek to influence, inform and support pro-poor
policy. ACCESS operates in nine states of the country.
C S Reddy, Chief Executive Officer, APMAS
ACCESS-ASSIST
Anu Gupta, Deputy Head, Private Sector, Department for International
Development (DFID)
Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Chairman & Managing Director Bandhan
Detlev Holloh, Programme Director, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur
International Zusammenarbeit, GIZ-NABARD Rural Finance Institutions
Programme
Elizabeth Larson, Asia Regional Manager, Microfinance Information
Exchange (MIX)
Hemant Kaul, Independent Consultant
Jayesh Modi, SVP, Head Inclusive Banking Unit, HSBC
Jennifer Isern, Manager, Access to Finance Advisory, South Asia,
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Malcolm Harper, Professor Emeritus, Cranfield Unversity
Maneesha Chadha, Head-Corporate Citizenship, Citi South Asia
Manoj Sharma, Managing Director – Asia, MicroSave
N Srinivasan, Senior Sector Expert
Prakash Kumar, General Manager, PSIG, Small Industries Development
Bank of India (SIDBI)
Ratnesh, Programme Analyst, United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP)
Santadarshan Sadhu, Head Policy & Inhouse Research, Centre for
Microfinance - IFMR (CMF)
Satyam Darmora, Lead Family Economic Stability, Michael & Susan Dell
Foundation (MSDF)
Vipin Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, ACCESS Development Services
ACCESS-ASSIST (ASSIST) is a specialized affiliate of ACCESS
Development Services. ASSIST took over the microfinance
portfolio at ACCESS in 2009 with a mandate to engage
stakeholders across the financial value chain in creating
responsible financial services for the poor. ASSIST focuses on sector
building activities with a three-tier strategy: 1) incubating and scaling-up
the capacities of fledgling community-based microfinance organisations;
2) catalyzing the supply side flow of capital for the poor by strengthening
institutions through advisory and technical services; and 3) supporting an
enabling environment for financial inclusion through the Microfinance India
platform.
Welcome to the Microfinance India Summit
Microfinance India Summit, was first organized in 2004, in an effort
to build an ecosystem for the future organized growth of the
microfinance sector in India. At that time, while the SHG bank linkage
programme, after its initial crawl was beginning to pick up pace, the
alternate channel, supported by SIDBI and the private sector banks
also showed signs of acceleration. New stakeholders which included
investors, researchers, academics, rating agencies, technical service
providers, promoters were all beginning to show interest in this
potentially growing sector. Microfinance India Summit 2013, now
in its tenth year, continues to play an important role in building this
eco-system, by bringing together the full diversity that the sector
represents and making efforts to cobble a common vision to address
the overwhelming challenge of universalization of financial access in
India.
While the Microfinance India Summit, over the last ten years has
got firmly established as an important global sector event; in the
process of its evolution, ACCESS also started publishing and releasing
important knowledge products during the Summit. The State of
the Sector (SoS) Report, now in its eighth year, is among the most
authoritative resource book which provides an insightful narration of
the sector’s growth and evolution on an annual basis. Since the last
three years, given the loss of credibility of the sector in the aftermath
of the Andhra crisis, the India Social Performance (SP) Report too
has become an annual publication, seeking to compile good practices
within MFIs. ACCESS, under the Microfinance India initiative has
consistently brought out several other publications with a view to
inform and influence pro-poor policies in the country.
Microfinance India summit 2013 is in some ways a departure from
how past Summits were conceived. Given the thrust that the
government of India is giving to the agenda of financial inclusion,
it becomes critical to use the Summit Platform also to analyse how
these plans are moving forward. Appropriately, financial inclusion has
become one of the core sub themes for the Summit 2013. While one
session will attempt to deliberate on a financial inclusion vision 2020
for the country, a few other sessions will look at operational issues
relating to the viability of Business Correspondents as also manner
in which technology is enabling efficient delivery of services on the
ground. Specifically, the idea of Small Finance Banks mooted by
the Raghuram Rajan Committee on Financial sector reforms in 2008
has been picked up for policy deliberation. We are heartened that
senior representatives from the government and the RBI are able to
participate in this year’s Summit across themes.
Outside the effort of the Government in Financial Inclusion, two
important channels viz SHG bank linkage and the MFIs have now
for over two decades been reaching out to a large unbanked poor
population. Various dimensions of how these channels are operating,
product and process innovations and challenges and policy issues
will be part of the Summit discussions. Given the continuing need
to restore the sector’s credibility, some sessions will look at how
responsible finance and social performance is being embedded within
practices in both these channels. Importantly this year, findings of
impact studies of two large MFIs will also be presented.
In addition to the annual SoS and SP reports, this year we are
happy to bring out some technical studies and reports – a study on
Responsible Finance Practices in SHG Bank linkage programme, a
State of Practice Report on Human Resource Management in MFIs
and a Benchmarking Status Report on Housing Microfinance.
We are most honoured by the groundswell of support ACCESS has
received from several stakeholders over these last ten years, by
our sponsors, by the presence of sector leaders in several panels
contributing to frank and fierce debates and by large number of
participants who make it a point to be a part of this celebration
of the sector each year. Specifically, we are deeply grateful to
supporters who have continued to partner with the Summit over the
years including the Ford Foundation, Citi Foundation, HSBC, UNDP,
NABARD, IFC and SIDBI. We would also like to thank important
sponsors who have provided support to one or the other sub
initiative of the Summit and important publications. These include
Standard Chartered Bank, Rabobank, Dia Vikas, World bank, GIZ and
also a large number of technical partners who support the design,
content and coordination of sessions.
Efforts of the small team at ACCESS have been driven by the
need to deliver value from the deliberations across the two days
through careful selection of themes and sub themes as also inviting
appropriate sector experts and through publications that are
released at the Summit. All strands of delivery focusing on financial
services to the poor are discussed and debated in the Summit, and
the future ambition at ACCESS is to further evolve and transform
the Microfinance India summit as the central platform to build the
financial inclusion vision for India.
On behalf of ACCESS and ACCESS ASSIST, we welcome you to the
tenth Microfinance India Summit!
Vipin Sharma
Chief Executive Director
Access Development Services
access
Radhika Agashe
Executive Director
ACCESS-ASSIST
SESSION PLAN
SUMMIT 2013
SESSION PLAN
Day 1 • December 9, 2013
9:15 – 10:15 a.m.
Welcome address
INAUGURAL SESSION
•Vijayalakshmi Das, Chairperson, ACCESS
Release of
Publications:
• State of Sector
Report 2013
• Social
Performance
Report 2013
• Crests and
Troughs Microfinance
India
Presentation on
Highlights of State
of Sector Report
•Dr Tara Nair, Associate Professor, Gujarat
Institute of Development Research (GIDR)
Special Addresses
•Robert Annibale, Global Director, Citi
Microfinance and Community Development,
Citigroup
•Stuart Milne, CEO, HSBC India
•N K Maini, DMD, SIDBI
Inaugural Address
•Rajiv Takru, Secretary, Department of Financial
Services, Govt of India
SESSION PLAN
Day 1 • December 9, 2013
10:20 a.m. – 11:40 a.m.
Plenary
Session 1
FINANCIAL INCLUSION: VISION 2020
Over the last several decades, but particularly in the
last few years, several efforts have been made to
explore options of advancing the financial inclusion
agenda in the country. While policy and regulation
have played a catalyzing rsole in forming and
fine-tuning appropriate strategies; the success of
this effort lies largely on the resolve of the formal
financial system and also the state apparatus, given
their critical role in delivering outcomes. However,
despite the commitment at the highest level, there
are several issues and impediments that financial
institutions face while implementing the policies and
in securing outreach and impact on the ground. This
session will attempt to build a vision for financial
inclusion for India, identify policy bottlenecks,
strategies for convergence and incubation of
innovations for sustained and durable outcomes
towards mainstreaming the poor into the formal
financial systems.
Moderator: N Srinivasan, Sector Expert
Speakers:
•Anurag Jain, Joint Secretary, Department of
Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of
India
•Aruna Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary and
Development Commissioner, Panchayati Raj and
Rural Development Department, Govt. of Madhya
Pradesh
•Elizabeth Rhyne, Managing Director, Centre for
Financial Inclusion, ACCION
•Alok Prasad, CEO, Microfinance Institutions Network
(MFIN)
•Nilanjan Majumdar, Vice President and Head,
Financial Inclusion, Axis Bank
•M K Krishnaraj Prabhu, Regional Business Head, HDFC
Bank
SESSION PLAN
Day 1 • December 9, 2013
11:40 am – 12:00 noon
TEA BREAK
12.00 – 1.15 pm
PARALLEL PLENARY
12.00 – 1.15 pm
REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS: COPING WITH COMPLIANCE
Parallel Plenary
Track 1
One significant issue that both the MFIs and lenders
are grappling with is the challenge of compliance
to the current regulatory guidelines. While the
regulatory guidelines issued by the RBI in 2012 have
provided a framework for the MFIs to operate,
there are outstanding issues with respect to some
stipulations in terms of putting appropriate systems
in place in MFIs to integrate these and for banks for
evaluating and ensuring compliance. The session
will provide space to relevant stakeholders for
formally sharing critical concerns regarding some
of the regulatory provisions and highlight need
and possible ways of for aligning these with the
operational realities of MFIs and banks.
Venue: Hall A/B
Chair: Shri N. S .Vishwanathan, Principal CGM , DNBS,
Reserve Bank of India
Moderator: Vineet Rai, CEO, Intellecap Group
Discussants:
• P K Saha, Chief General Manager, SIDBI
• S K V Srinivasan, Executive Director, IDBI Bank
• Mathew Titus, Executive Director, Sa-Dhan
• Sanjeev Mantri, Senior General Manager, ICICI Bank
• Govind Singh, Managing Director, Utkarsh
Financial Services
SESSION PLAN
Day 1 • December 9, 2013
12.00 – 1.15 pm
SHG BANK LINKAGE: OPTIMISING THE POTENTIAL
Parallel Plenary
Track 2
The country has over 8 million Self Help Groups
with accounts in banks, of which 4.5 million have
outstanding debt of a total of Rs 394 billion,
providing access to banks for about 100 million
rural women. The implementation of SHG-2 is
underway, indicating initiation of a new era in the
SHG movement. Also, the RBI has issued guidelines
to banks with respect to linkage of SHGs under
the National Rural Livelihoods Mission, and it
is envisaged that number of SHGs will increase
manifold with the programme having rolled out.
With this large existing pool of SHGs and the
expected growth, it is imperative that the role of
SHGs is extended beyond (indirect) credit linkage,
and strategies are developed to optimise their
potential in enabling comprehensive financial
inclusion of their members. How can this social
capital be leveraged to contribute to the larger
financial inclusion agenda? This session seeks to
learn from some existing efforts and brainstorm
on operational and policy level changes needed to
accomplish this.
Venue: Hall C
Moderator: Y C Nanda, Chairman, ACCESS ASSIST
(Former Chairman NABARD)
Speakers:
• Dr B S Suran, Chief General Manager, MCID,
NABARD
• C S Reddy, CEO, APMAS
• D. Narendranath, Programme Director, PRADAN
• Ajay Tankha, Development Researcher and
Author, Banking on Self Help Groups: Twenty
Years On
• Sarat Yadav, Assistant General Manager, Rural
Inclusive Banking Group, ICICI Bank
1:15 – 2:00 p.m.
LUNCH
2:00 – 3:15 p.m.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
2:00 – 3:15 p.m.
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN MFIS: THE
STATE OF PRACTICE
Breakout
Session 1
Venue: Hall B
The two most significant resources for MFIs are
financial capital and human capital. Responsible
Human Resource Management system in MFIs is key
driver for ensuring translation of responsible client
centric policies into actual practice. In addition to the
target clients being low income and vulnerable, an
important factor of the HR challenge in microfinance
is that the frontline staff has limited education and
also belongs to lower socio-economic backgrounds.
These realities call for attention for issues related
to rigour and transparency in HR business practices
in MFIs – planning, acquiring, sensitizing, training,
organising, remunerating, evaluating, incentivising,
promoting, motivating and so on. This session is
based on highlights from an ASSIST study covering
HR practices of 25 MFIs, and will aim at reaching a
consensus on prominent gaps and solutions by way
of support from the sector to MFIs to overcome
these.
Moderator: Dr Alok Misra, CEO, M-CRIL
Lead Presentation: K Jayachandran, Director, HR AXIS
Discussants:
• Suresh Krishna, Managing Director, Grameen
Financial Services
• Vandana Viswanathan, Partner, Cocoon
Consulting and Member, BoD, Ujjivan Financial
Services
• Girish Nair, Senior Operations Officer, Access to
Finance Advisory South Asia, IFC
• Michael Rauenhorst, Vice President, Social
Performance Group, Moody’s Analytics
• Shweta, AVP-HR Initiatives, Suryodaya
Microfinance
2:00 – 3:15 p.m.
Breakout
Session 2
Venue: Hall A
SHG SCHEMATIC: APPLYING THE REPOSNISIBLE
FINANCE LENS
The SHG Bank linkage programme, starting from
the pilot project in 1992, has evolved as a major
mainstream channel under which the poor are able
to access formal financial institutional services.
However, even today the principles of responsible
finance in both intra group dynamics - financial and
social, and in the transactions between SHGs and
banks, are not applied and studied. Backed by findings
of a sample study conducted by ACCESS ASSIST in
partnership with GiZ and IFMR Research, this panel
will seek to review practices in SHG bank linkage
with respect to ‘responsiveness and responsibility’ to
clients/members, and propose a way forward.
Moderator: Frances Sinha, Director, EDA Rural
Systems
Lead Presentation: Amulya Champatiray, Head
Training Vertical, IFMR Research
Speakers:
• Dr R M Manjunatha Gowda, President, Karnataka
State Cooperative Apex Bank
• Jonna Bickel, Technical Advisor, GIZ-NABARD
Rural Financial Institutions Programme, GIZ
• Sonali Vayangankar, Vice Chair and MD, MAVIM
• Kalpana Sankar, MD, Hand in Hand
• A. Chandrashekhar, Faculty, BIRD
2:00 – 3:15 p.m.
Breakout
Session 3
Venue: Hall C
TRANSFORMING THE LIVES OF THE POOR: A
MICROFINANCE JOURNEY
The World Bank has set a target for ending extreme
poverty in this world by 2030 and declared that all
policies and strategies of the Bank would henceforth
be directed to achieve this goal. Financial service
providers have a big role in achieving this poverty
goal. However, financial services alone are inadequate
for lifting the poor sustainably above poverty.
Realizing this fact, many microfinance practitioners
are adopting a holistic approach by addressing the
myriad problems faced by the poor. Freedom from
Hunger and the Microcredit Summit Campaign
have been working with several financial service
providers in India to demonstrate that such add-on
services can be practically and sustainably combined
with microfinance services to transform the lives
of the poor. This session will discuss potential of
some of these approaches in transforming the
lives of poor clients, challenges faced and provide
recommendations for up-scaling and way forward.
Moderator: D S K Rao, Regional Director, Microcredit
Summit Campaign Asia Pacific
Presenter: J D Bergeron, Executive Director, Truelift
Speakers:
• Larry Reed, Director, Microcredit Summit Campaign
• Mukul Jaiswal, Managing Director, Cashpor
• Steve L Hollingworth, President, Freedom from
Hunger
• John Alex, VP and Head, Social Initiatives and
Program Director, Equitas Group
3:15 - 3:30 PM
TEA BREAK
3:30 – 3: 45 p.m.
A POTENTIAL OPPORTUNITY FOR MFIS IN RURAL
SANITATION
Presentation by Ashish Karamchandani, Monitor
Inclusive Markets
3.45 – 5:10 p.m
FUND FLOW TO THE SECTOR – UNCLOGGING THE
CHANNELS
Plenary Session 2
One of the challenges that continue to slowdown the
pace of the microfinance sector is the flow of funds
that has significantly decreased in the past three years.
While fund flow from banks has shown improvement
in the last year, it is far too short of the demand
aggregated at the MFI level. While most banks have
been lending to a few more established MFIs, the
small and medium organizations continue to struggle
for funding. The consistency of fund flow is also a
challenge, with higher quantum typically released in
the last fiscal quarter to fulfill their PSL requirements.
This session will deliberate on ways of bringing
funders fully on board in a more committed manner to
lend to the sector. The panel will identify factors and
creative solutions that will instill greater confidence
among financial institutions to lend to the sector.
Moderator: Eric Savage, President, Unitus Capital
Speakers:
• Arvind Kumar, Joint. Secretary, Department of
Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India
• R M Malla, Managing Director & CEO, PTC India
Financial Services Limited (PFS)
• Brij Mohan, Chairman, Ananya Finance for
Inclusive Growth
• P N Vasudevan, Managing Director, Equitas
Microfinance
• Rajeev Ahuja, Head – Strategy, Ratnakar Bank
• Srinivasan Nagarajan, Regional Director, South
Asia, CDC India Advisors Pvt Ltd
5:15 – 6:15 PM
MICROFINANCE INDIA AWARDS 2013 CEREMONY
• Dr. Arvind Mayaram, Secretary, Department of
Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, GOI
• Stuart Milne, Group General Manager and CEO,
HSBC India
• Sam Sharpe, Country Head, DFID India
• Naina Lal Kidwai, Country Head India, Director
HSBC Asia Pacific
6.00 pm onwards
CLIENT PROTECTION CERTIFICATION LAUNCH –
SMART CAMPAIGN
SESSION PLAN
Day 2 • December 10, 2013
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY FOR ADVANCING
FINANCIAL INCLUSION: POSSIBILITIES AND TRADEOFFS
Plenary Session
3
Financial exclusion is a major challenge in India, with
over 65% of adults not having access to a formal
bank account. Diverse models for extending the
outreach of banking and financial services to the
unbanked have been explored. A majority of these
models fundamentally substitute trained bankers
by technology, allowing agents with elementary
training to conduct basic banking - account opening,
deposit and withdrawal, balance enquiry and
funds transfer. In the past, over dependence on
technology, lack of standards and interoperability
has limited the capabilities of services offered to the
poor consumers. With continuous efforts by RBI,
this has been partly addressed through integration
to core banking and adoption of online transaction
processing. Moreover new delivery models (micro
ATMs, mobile banking, card and card-less solutions)
are emerging with some stories of success in other
developing countries. This session will discuss on
how technology could play a role in advancing
financial inclusion; has technology been enabling or
hampering; and perspectives for the future.
Moderator: Graham N. Wright, Group Managing
Director, MicroSave
Speakers:
• M.V. Subramanian, President, Rural and Inclusive
Banking, Axis Bank
• Uttam Nayak, Group Country Manager – India
and South Asia, VISA
• Rajesh Bansal, Assistant Director General,
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
• Sridhar Iyer, Director, Head of Digital Business,
Citibank India
• Sriram Jagannathan, CEO, Airtel Money
SESSION PLAN
Day 2 • December 10, 2013
10:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.
TEA BREAK
10:50 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. PARALLEL PLENARY
10:50 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. FROM TOKENSIM TO PRACTICE: ENGENDERING
SOCIAL PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Parallel Plenary 3
Venue: Hall A/B
The thrust on enhancing, tracking and reporting
social performance has increased since after the
Andhra Pradesh crisis, with higher scrutiny by the
regulator as well as increased sectoral standards
and compliances. The Social Performance Report
2013 evaluates the prevalent responsible finance
standards and tools of assessments, as well as
attempts to initiate a framework for tracking
composite performance, financial and social, of MFIs
year on year on a set of metrics. The interplay of
social performance and compliance to the existing
regulatory guidelines for MFIs is analysed separately.
This year’s report for the first time includes a chapter
on applying the responsible finance lens on the SHG
Bank linkage programme. The session will delve into
some of these issues in the backdrop of highlights
presented from the report.
Moderator: Prashant Thakker, Global Business Head,
Microfinance and Regional Head for Development
Organization for Asia, Standard Chartered Bank
Lead presentation: Girija Srinivasan, Author, Social
Performance Report 2013
Discussants:
• Laura Foose, Director, Social Performance Task
Force
• Veena Mankar, Managing Director, Swadhaar
FinAccess
• Achla Savyasaachi, Vice President, Sa-Dhan
• Alexandra Rizzi, Deputy Director, SMART
Campaign
SESSION PLAN
Day 2 • December 10, 2013
10:50 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. BUSINESS CORRESSPONDENTS: VIABILITY
IMPAIRING THE VALUE
Parallel Session 4
Venue: Hall C
Building a strong agent network in India presents
an opportunity to create a digital pipeline through
which a range of services can be offered to the
poor and unbanked. Safe and convenient access to
financial and payment services, and direct benefit
transfers, can improve the quality of life for the
poor. As of today, India has over 200,000 bank
agents on the ground. This panel will examine the
quality of these agent networks, the business case
for providers and agents, as well as the operational
issues that are rampant. It will also discuss the
customer experience so far, and the challenges
that the agents are facing to deliver both financial
services as well as social welfare benefits.
Moderator: Steve Rasmussen, Head, Technology and
Business Model Innovation team, CGAP CGAP
Presenter: Shweta Banerjee, Analyst, CGAP
Panellists:
• M.V. Subramanian, President, Rural and Inclusive
Banking, Axis Bank
• Puneet Chopra, Associate Director Asia,
MicroSave
• Bonam Srinivas, Head Inclusive Banking Group,
IndusInd Bank
• Chandni Ohri, CEO, Grameen Foundation India
• Raj Singh-Khaira, VP, Relationship Management
and Strategic Alliances, FINO
SESSION PLAN
Day 2 • December 10, 2013
12:10 – 1:30 p.m.
PARALLEL PLENARY
12:10 – 1:30 p.m.
BACK OF THE BEYOND: REACHING OUT TO THE
DIFFICULT REGIONS
Parallel Session 5
Venue: Hall A/B
In the last few years, several efforts have been
made to explore options of advancing the agenda
of financial inclusion in unreached, underserved
and unbanked regions. However, despite the
commitment at the highest level, there are several
issues and impediments that financial institutions
face while implementing the policies and in securing
outreach in these regions. ‘Difficult’ regions and
pockets have specific challenges such as limited
physical accessibility, conflict and extremely high
incidence of poverty etc., leading to a continued
under-penetration of all services including
government benefits and financial services. This
session will focus on difficult regions and proposes
to review some strategies and models that have
worked in India, learning from an international
experience and how policy, funding, institutional
support, technical resources and other enablers need
to be specifically geared for effectively catering to
needs of these regions.
Moderator: Meenakshi Nath, Deputy Head,
Department for International Development
Speakers:
• Bidya Nath Paul, General Secretary and Director,
SPADE
• D K Mishra, DGM, MCID, NABARD
• Najib Samim, Executive Director, Afghanistan
Microfinance Association (AMA)
• Abhijit Sharma, Associate Professor, Indian
Institute of Bank Management (IIBM), Guwahati
• Subhash Kumar, Secretary, Samadhan Kendra
12:10 – 1:30 p.m.
Parallel Session 6
Venue: Hall C
SHG FEDERATIONS: STRENGTHENING THE
ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
One of the important institutional and empowering
mechanisms for delivery of financial services to
poor households is the SHGs and federations of
SHGs. With the roll out of National Rural Livelihoods
Mission, importantly a large number of SHG
federations are expected to be promoted across
the country. The panel will aim at deliberating on
the enabling environment for promotion of these
institutions –including availability of funds for
promotion and long term hand holding support,
capacities of promoting entities, available legal
framework, and availability of on-lending funds from
banks.
Moderator : Girija Srinivasan, Consultant and Sector
Expert
Discussants:
• I Ramachandra Reddy, Consultant, NRLM
• Kalpana Pant, Joint Director, Chaitanya
• Navin Anand, Resource Person and Moderator,
Microfinance Community, Solution Exchange,
UNDP
• A. K. Singh, DGM, MCID, NABARD
1:30 – 2:20 p.m.
LUNCH
2:20 – 3:40 p.m. BREAK OUT SESSIONS
2:20 – 3:40 p.m. FRESH EVIDENCE ON IMPACT: DELIVERING ON THE
PROMISE?
Breakout
Session 4
Venue: Hall A
In India some of the detailed impact studies of
microfinance were carried out during the period
between the late 1990s and mid-2000s. As the
sector grew in size and spread, such elaborate
impact studies gave way to ‘smart’ assessments of
social performance largely because they required
substantial commitment of time and funds. Also,
the fast expanding microfinance sector that follows
multiple models of delivery has posed peculiar
methodological challenges to impact researchers.
Of late, however, there has been a renewal of
interest among MFIs to review their performance
through impact assessments. This panel, organised
in partnership with MFIN, will present and discuss
recent impact studies of the two leading MFIs Bandhan and Ujjivan – carried out by IIM-A and
Delphi India, respectively. Apart from showcasing
the empirically validated findings of these studies,
the panel would throw some light on the lingering
questions of methodology that such enquiries are
challenged with.
Moderator: Dr Tara Nair, Associate Professor,
Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR)
Presenters:
• Nikhil Prabhu, MD and CEO, Delphi India
• Prof Samar K Datta, Institute Professor,
Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI)
Discussants:
• Vivek Malhotra, Deputy General Manager, SIDBI
• Sharon Buteau, Executive Director, IFMR
Research
SESSION PLAN
Day 2 • December 10, 2013
2:20 – 3:40 p.m. THE NEED FOR HOUSING MICROFINANCE: WHO
WILL PLUG THE GAP?
Breakout
Session 5
Venue: Hall B
Low income households build their homes
incrementally, one stage at a time. Housing
microfinance is defined as the provision of unsecured
microcredit to meet the demand of low-income
households to repair or improve their existing
homes or build their own homes over time. Housing
Microfinance is an emerging practice in India
with leading MFIs piloting housing improvement,
water and sanitation loan products and services.
Some institutions are providing institutional and
construction technical assistance to MFIs and their
clients, respectively. Specialized HFCs are providing
wholesale debt financing to MFIs willing to take
up housing microfinance as a potential product
offering. This panel reviews the potential demand,
present status, operational challenges and policy
environment in Housing microfinance and provide
recommendations for way forward. The report on
‘Housing Microfinance in India: Benchmarking the
Status’ being brought out by ASSIST with support
from the IFC will provide a background for this
discussion.
Moderator: Jennifer Isern, South Asia Regional
Manager, Access to Finance Advisory, International
Finance Corporation (IFC)
Lead presenter: Vibhu Arya, Author, Status Report
on Housing Microfinance in India
Discussants:
• Rita Bhattacharya, Assistant General Manager,
National Housing Bank
• A. Ramesh Kumar, Chairman & MD, Swarna
Pragati Housing Microfinance Pvt Ltd.
• Suresh Krishna, Managing Director, Grameen
Financial Services
• Ramchandra Vaidya, CEO, MicroBuild India
SESSION PLAN
Day 2 • December 10, 2013
2:20 – 3:40 p.m. REPORTING BLUES: BUILDING AN EFFICIENT
DATA ECOSYSTEM
Breakout
Session 6
Venue: Hall C
Over the last decade, microfinance industry
performance data and reporting requirements
have intensified in tandem with the increased
sophistication and size of the sector itself. However,
MFI growth has outpaced the capacity of the
corresponding data ecosystem; the industry is
now far more advanced and efficient than the data
ecosystem can support it. Funders, investors, donors,
and regulators all contribute to the ballooning
reporting requirements, which cost MFIs time and
money. The average Indian MFI reports to 12 data
collectors over 50 times per year, with a significant
percentage of redundant data. This session will
investigate these issues and discuss solutions that
are being explored to overcome these challenges.
Moderator: Royston Braganza, CEO, Grameen Capital
Lead Presenter: Amarnath Samarapally, Lead
Analyst, MIX
Discussants:
• Balaji Iyer, Director and Global Portfolio
Manager, Microfinance, Standard Chartered
Bank
• Jugal Kataria, CFO, Satin Creditcare Network Ltd.
• Ritesh Chatterjee, Head of Organizational
Excellence and Service Quality, SKS Microfinance
Ltd.
SESSION PLAN
Day 2 • December 10, 2013
3:40 – 3:55 p.m.
TEA BREAK
3:55 – 5:05 p.m.
SMALL FINANCE BANKS: AN IDEA WHO’S TIME HAS
COME?
Plenary Session 4
While the idea of a “small finance bank” was first
recommended by the Raghuram Rajan Committee;
now with Dr Rajan at the helm of affairs, RBI is
seriously considering the feasibility of instituting
this new category of banks to advance the
financial inclusion agenda. Given the reluctance
of mainstream commercial banks to provide small
loans to a large unbanked population, perhaps a new
dedicated category of banks might do a better job
in servicing this client profile. Essentially the session
will deliberate on the need and significance for this
new category of banks; how it might be different
from other categories like commercial banks, RRBs,
Cooperatives, and perhaps the Local Area Banks;
is there a need to tweak the current institutions or
create a new one; what are opportunities for large
MFIs to graduate and apply for this category and
perhaps broadly look at its operational feasibility.
Moderator: Mythili Bhusnurmath, Consulting
Financial Editor
Keynote Speaker: Shri P Vijaya Bhaskar, Executive
Director, Reserve Bank of India
Respondents:
• P N Vasudevan, Managing Director, Equitas
Microfinance
• Vijay Nadkarni, Managing Director, Krishna
Bhima Samruddhi Local Area Bank (KBSLAB)
• Avijit Saha, General Manager, Rural Inclusive
Banking Group, ICICI Bank
5:05 – 5: 55 p.m. VALEDICTORY SESSION
• Y C Nanda, Chairman, ACCESS ASSIST & Former
Chairman NABARD
• Malcolm Harper, Professor Emeritus, Cranfield
University
• Lise Grande, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP
Resident Representative in India
• Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman,
Planning Commission of India
Presentation of the 10 Year Commemorative & Collaborative
Publication on Indian Microfinance “Crests and Troughs –
Microfinance India” to Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Honourable
Deputy Chairman, Planning
ASSOCIATED EVENTS
SUMMIT 2013
Microfinance India Awards 2013 ACCESS instituted the Microfinance India Awards initiative, with support from HSBC,
in 2009. Soon after the Awards were instituted, the Sector witnessed its worst
crisis when the Andhra Pradesh Government clamped down the MFI operations in
the State through promulgation of an ordinance. The AP imbroglio, while severely
impacting the operations of MFIs in the State, also significantly impaired the
reputation of the sector. The MFIs were accused of unethical practices, client abuse,
lack of transparency, profiteering, among others. Over the last two years, a sector
that was growing at over 50% CAGR, witnessed negative growth, drying up of funds,
high defaults and heavy losses, and also, unfortunately, a badly tarnished image.
In addition to recognizing committed efforts of individuals and institutions, it has now
become imperative for ACCESS to appropriately realign the metrics of assessment
to identify those institutions that remain steadfast to their social mission, balancing
scale with soul. Post the Andhra Pradesh crisis, the Microfinance India Awards has
become an important new device to recognize those institutions that demonstrated
higher order of ethics in their operations, thus providing a new value proposition
for the Awards. The Awards also becomes a mechanism for strengthening the
Responsible Finance efforts of the sector and help in restoring its credibility.
Awards will be presented for these categories:
Microfinance India Microfinance Organization (MFO) of the Year Award
This category aims to recognize Microfinance Organizations of diverse models and
sizes that have demonstrated leadership in establishing responsible finance practices,
product and process innovation and good governance, along with reasonable
growth. There are three institutional sub categories to provide adequate scope
for representation to MFOs following different growth strategies and of different
vintage.
• Microfinance India MFO of the Year Award for Large Organizations
This award recognizes industry leaders that exemplify delivery of responsible
microfinance services to a large number of clients across geographies with high
efficiency and effectiveness.
• Microfinance India MFO of the Year Award for Medium Organizations
This category includes MFOs with responsible portfolio and client size, with
strong processes and efficient operations; and is either young and demonstrates
potential of scaling up in future or is a time tested and effective model of
microfinance delivery with a modest growth trajectory.
• Microfinance India MFO of the Year Award for Small and Emerging
Organizations
This new award category introduced this year to appreciate the efforts of smaller
upcoming organizations, which clearly demonstrate the intent and capability to
grow and deliver microfinance responsibly.
Microfinance India Community Based Microfinance Organization of the Year Award
Another new Award category seeks to recognize niche class of financial
intermediaries that are community owned and managed, provided need based
financial and non-financial services to their members with evident operational and
financial viability. While these organizations are also MFOs, emphasis is on the
member interests, transparency in governance and management and ownership of
members and elected governing body in decision making and management.
Microfinance India Self Help Group Promoting Institution Award
This new Award category seeks to acknowledge organizations working resolutely and
at a scale towards economic empowerment of poor women by promoting Self Help
Groups and fostering their linkages with banks and other mainstream institutions
for financial as well as non-financial services. The SHG Promoting Institutions were
judged on parameters of sound governance, professional management, number of
SHGs and their credit linkages and systems and processes in place for SHG promotion
and mentoring.
Microfinance India Contribution to the sector by Enabling Institution
Award under this category recognizes the efforts of support institutions, such as
private investors, industry associations, technical service providers, rating agencies,
research agencies, and lenders.
Microfinance India Contribution to the sector by an Individual
This is designed as a lifetime achievement award to honour significant contribution
of an individual towards sector building, influencing policy at the highest level, and
representation in national/international forums.
Jury’s Special Award
This is a jury nominated category to honour luminaries credited with bringing global
recognition and repute to the microfinance sector through their pioneering efforts.
LIVELIHOODS INDIA CONFERENCE 2013
Livelihoods
India
Conference 2013
The Quest for Scale
The Livelihoods India Conference is an annual event of two days, wherein deliberation
and debates around the need for composite and durable solutions in livelihoods
promotion are discussed. This year, the Livelihoods India - Quest for Scale Conference is
being organized between December 11-12 at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi. Through its
sessions, the Conference will explore the determinants of scale in livelihoods promotion
by looking at various approaches adopted by different actors. Strategies for creating
vibrant and scaled-up livelihoods promotion models and experiences of scaling up these
efforts will also be discussed at the Conference. A diverse set of stakeholders including
government representatives, policy makers, practitioners and academicians are invited
to share their experiences, build consensus and define road map and strategies for
enabling sustainable livelihoods for the poor.
Day 1: December 11, 2013
9:15-10:30 am
Inaugural Session and Release of State of India’s (SOIL) Report
10:30-11:45 am
Plenary Session 1: Livelihoods Promotion – The Quest for Scale
11:45-12:15 pm
12:15-1:30 pm
Networking Break
Plenary Session 2: Corporate Social Responsibility –
Commerce or Commitment?
1:30-2:15 pm
Lunch
2:15-3:30 pm
Breakaway Sessions
1. External Aid and National Programmes – Contours of
Convergence
2. Women’s Ownership and Management of Land
3. Producer Organizations’ Sustainability –
Strengthening the Enabling Environment
3:30-4:00 pm
Networking Break
4:00-5:30 pm
Plenary Session 3: Livelihoods Approaches for the Socially
Excluded Communities
Day 2: December 12, 2013
9:30 -11:00 am
Plenary Session 4: Urban Livelihoods Approaches – Need for
a New Thrust
11:00-11:30 am
Networking Break
11:30-1:00 pm
Plenary Session 5: Inclusive Value Chains – What’s in it for the
Private Sector?
1:00-2:00 pm
Lunch
2:00-3:30 pm
Breakaway Sessions
1.
ICT for Livelihoods Promotion
2.
Skilling India: Job filling for fulfilling jobs
3.
Reaching the BoP through Social Enterprise Approach
3:30-3:45 pm
Networking Break
3:45- 5:00 pm
Plenary Session 6: Scouting and Upscaling Innovative
Livelihood Solutions: Does NRLM provide a response?
5:00-6:00 pm
Valedictory Session
Launch of State of the Practice India (Client Protection) Report
Date: December 9, 2013
Time: 1:15 – 2:00 p.m.
Venue: Lunch Area, Hotel Ashok, New Delhi
The Smart Campaign will publicly release the State of the Practice in Client Protection
India report at a luncheon event on the 9th December, at the Microfinance India
Summit, 2013, New Delhi. The report, presents the results from its IFC-Smart
Campaign, Accion project from 2011-13. The report provides a snapshot of the state
of practice of client protection in the India. Simultaneously, the report provides
an overview of the level of effort made by MFIs, to improve practices through
participation in training and subsequent self assessments. The report also showcases
some of the extraordinary efforts and commitments made by MFIs to improve
practices through upgrade project and new initiatives of the Campaign including
certification.
Client Protection Certification Launch
Date: December 9, 2013
Time: 6 pm onwards
Venue: Hotel Samrat, New Delhi
SMART will introduce its flagship Client Protection Certificate Programme to the
Indian Market. Institutions that have successfully undergone the certification process
(Grameen Kota, Cashpore, Ujjivan) would be awarded certificates followed by a short
panel discussion on what it means to be Client Protection Certified particularly in the
Indian Context.
Roundtable on Potential for integrating MFI client database with
electronic-KYC and payment system of UID Platform
Date: December 9, 2013
Time: 7:00 pm onwards
Venue: Hall 292, Hotel Ashok, New Delhi
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has now enabled a feature that
would facilitate opening of a bank account for Aadhaar Card holders by expanding
the electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) facility. There are possibilities to secure
insurance cover and apply for mutual funds with this card. The UIDAI is exploring
potential for tie-ups with financial institutions based on their geographical outreach
to lend through e-KYC.
In this context, a Round Table is being organized to deliberate upon the opportunities
and possibilities of MFI partners of SIDBI to associate with this initiative.
Dinner Discussion on Micro-pensions under Poorest States
Inclusive Growth (PSIG) programmeDate: December 10, 2013
Time: 7 p.m.
Venue: Hall 292, Hotel Ashok, New Delhi
Dinner discussion on Micro-pensions is being organised under the aegis of the PSIG
programme supported by DFID, Govt of U.K. and implemented by SIDBI.
The discussion will involve orientation of Microfinance Institutions on micro-pension
product and roll out, and details of possible partnerships. The discussion will provide
an opportunity for MFIs to learn from current models being implemented and
generate ideas and seek clarifications on ways of delivering this important financial
service to its clients.
*By Invitation only
Workshop on Responsible Inclusive Finance: From Intent to
Action by SPTF-Truelift
Date: December 11, 2013
Time: 9:30 am - 4:15 pm
Venue: Hall 2000, Le Meridien, New Delhi
Social Performance Task Force is a working group formed by CGAP, the Argidius
Foundation, and the Ford Foundation to contribute on various social performance
initiatives in the microfinance industry to come to an agreement on a common social
performance framework and to develop an action plan to move social performance
forward. Responsible Inclusive Finance is a part of the social performance initiative of
SPTF. It focuses on expanding access to responsible finance initiatives by identifying
those organizations that cater services to poor and vulnerable populations. This also
includes organisations that are often unable to gain access for expanding the range
of financial services available to low-income people; integrating client protection
into all their policies and practices; promoting transparency in all their operations;
pursuing balanced long-term returns that reflect the interests of clients, retail
provider1s and end investors. The Responsible Inclusive Finance Working Group,
composed of CERISE, MFTransparency, MIX, Principles for Investors in Inclusive
Finance, Smart Campaign, Social Performance Task Force, and Truelift is collaborating
to streamline efforts, avoid duplication and reduce confusion of their various
resources and tools related to responsible inclusive finance.
The Responsible Inclusive Finance Working Group is organizing a workshop. The
group will define responsible inclusive finance and provide an overview of all the
initiatives available to you. They will also provide a step-by-step roadmap to improve
practice and to improve overall social performance management, and also on a more
specific aspect, such as pricing transparency.
PUBLICATIONS
SUMMIT 2013
ACCESS Knowledge Series
MicrofinanceIndiaStateoftheSectorReport
Microfinance India State of the Sector Report is an annual publication of
ACCESS and ACCESS- ASSIST released at the Inaugural of the Summit. The
report presents a thorough analysis of the current trends and statistics,
impediments and achievements of the sector and recommendations for the
way forward. It is a well-referenced and respected authoritative document on
microfinance and financial inclusion in India.
MicrofinanceIndiaSocialPerformanceReport
I
I
SAGE mpact
SAGE mpact
SAGE mpact
I
Microfinance India Social Performance Report
highlights best practices in social performance
management and showcases noteworthy achievements
by institutions. The report offers a timely perspective and
refection for strengthening the sector. The report will
also be released at the Inaugural session of the Summit.
Srinivasan
The Social Performance Report 2012 talks about the different approaches of
stakeholders to the issue of improving customer protection and increasing the
focus of the sector on customer welfare. It evaluates the existing products and
documents the new products that are being tested or mainstreamed, which
will meet the demand of customers to a greater extent.
The report highlights the role of lenders and investors and the need for their
participation in institutionalizing responsible finance practices. It takes stock
of the impact of microfinance and provides insights into what microfinance
institutions measure, review and use to redesign their business models in
relation to responsible finance. The report looks at the changes that have
taken place, the changes that are necessary and the need for stakeholder
collaboration to ensure customer welfare.
Girija Srinivasan has been a leading international consultant in development
finance and rural livelihoods in India and abroad for the last 17 years.
Previously, she has been in the field of development banking for 12 years. She
has authored handbooks and manuals on group-based approaches in
microfinance and co-authored two books on community-owned microfinance
institutions and SHG federations.
Core Sponsor
Media Partner
Microfinance India: SPM Report 2013
[DUMMY TEXT] Microfinance India: The Social Performance Report is an
account of the developments in responsible finance and social performance
space in India. The report captures the essence of policy, strategy and practice
elements of social performance in the sector.
Microfinance India
The Social Performance Report 2013
Girija Srinivasan
Other-sponsors
An ACCESS Publication
StateoftheHousingMicrofinanceReport
The Housing Report, a new initiative is a document that will provide composite
information, data analysis for the emerging Housing Microfinance sector. The
report will highlight market opportunities, policy environment, successful
pilots and case studies.
CrestsandTroughs:MicrofinanceIndia
This commemorative and collaborative book aims to capture the insights and
experiences of varied stakeholders in the Indian microfinance sector over the
last decade. The diversity of reflections and voices is expected to make the
book a great source of reference regarding the sector’s evolution, triumphs,
dilemmas and lessons learnt.
StateofIndia’sLivelihoods(SOIL)Report
I
I
SAGE mpact
This is a one of its kind report and is the only document
that aggregates the experiences and challenges of the
livelihoods sector, analyses case studies, and reports the
progress of both government and privately run programs.
It is an annual publication addressing contemporary issues
impacting livelihoods of the poor. To bring together the
Report, ACCESS brings together a clutch of authors who
have domain knowledge of the sector. The themes that are being covered
through the SOIL Report 2013 include Policy on Livelihoods Promotion,
Agriculture, Skill and Employability and Social Protection and Livelihoods.
As a new feature, the SOIL Report 2013 will also carry a Statistical Atlas of
I
SAGE mpact
SAGE mpact
This volume of the SOIL Report discusses the current debates in the
livelihoods sector, livelihoods of the poor and how they are making both ends
meet, and the policies and plans on livelihoods. Further, it takes stock of the
progress and development in the past one year in flagship programmes for
poverty reduction through livelihoods enhancement and the growing
importance of CSR in livelihoods promotion of poor. With the shrinking space
of NGOs and the increasing importance of the government and the private
sector, the Report also takes a look at the changing role of civil society and
the emphasis on the State as a livelihoods promoter.
Vipin Sharma is CEO, ACCESS Development Services, New Delhi, India. He
has earlier worked in CARE-India as Programme Director, Microfinance,
heading CASHE (Credit and Savings for Household Enterprises). Prior to that,
he was Executive Director with Rural Non-Farm Development Agency (RUDA),
Government of Rajasthan, India.
Contributors
Unmesh Brahme • Sankar Datta • Biswa Bandhu Mohanty • Tara Nair
• Smita Premchander • Suryamani Roul • Ashok Sircar
Technical
Partner
FOR SALE ONLY IN SOUTH ASIA
State of India’s Livelihoods Report 2013
[DUMMY TEXT] The State of India’s Livelihoods Report (SOIL Report) is an
annual publication that aims to document recent trends and issues in the
sphere of livelihoods promotion of the poor. A one-of-its-kind report, it is the
only document that aggregates the experiences and challenges of the
livelihoods sector, analyses case studies and reports the progress of both
government and privately run programmes with respect to the 4Ps—People,
Policy, Promoters and Potential.
State of India’s Livelihoods Report 2013
An ACCESS Publication
Livelihoods, which will illustrate some of the major indictors of the status of
livelihood using disaggregated data at the state level.
Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Compendium
The Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition has been designed
as a mechanism to bring together diverse experiences from the field to
identify models and practices that have significantly contributed to the
livelihoods of the poor in India. The Case Study Competition strives to bring
together the collective intellect in the country and assimilate innovative
solutions; breakthroughs, good experiences and best practices that can help
change the poverty status in India.
The theme of this year’s competition is “Experiences in Enhancing the
Livelihoods of the Urban Poor”. The winning cases that will be published in the
form of a Compendium will focus on measures to support urban livelihoods,
reduce risks, and address regulatory or policy challenges faced by the urban
working poor.
SPECIAL GUESTS
SUMMIT 2013
Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission India
Shri Ahluwalia received his Bachelors degree from St.
Stephens College, Delhi University, M.A. and an M. Phil
degree in economics from Oxford University, where he
was a Rhodes Scholar. After completion of studies, he
joined the World Bank in 1968 as a Young Professional
and then held various positions including Chief of the Income Distribution
Division.
He joined the Government of India in 1979 as Economic Adviser in the
Ministry of Finance after which he held a series of positions including Special
Secretary to the Prime Minister; Secretary in the Department of Economic
Affairs; Member of the Planning Commission and Member of the Economic
Advisory Council to the Prime Minister to name a few. In 2001, he was
appointed as the first Director of the newly created Independent Evaluation
Office of the International Monitory Fund. He resigned the position in 2004
to take up the position of Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission
which he holds at present.
He was conferred the prestigious ‘Padma Vibhushan’ by President of India in
2011 for his outstanding contribution to economic policy and public service.
Arvind Mayaram
Secretary, Deptt of Economic Affairs
Ministry of Finance, Government of India
Arvind Mayaram holds the position of Additional Secretary
& Financial Adviser with the Ministry of Rural Development,
Government of India. In the past he has held high ranks
in the Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Finance;
Government of Rajasthan; State Enterprises, etc. He holds expertise in fields
such as foreign investment policy formulation and review; inter-government
negotiations on investment treaties; inter-government bilateral negotiations
on trade related issues;trade related credit issues; industrial policy and
development Issues;economic analysis of national policies relating to power,
roads, airports,telecommunication, ports, railways and urban infrastructure;
evaluation of investment proposals; policy relating to public private
partnerships in core infrastructure such as power, roads, ports, airports
and urban development;and regulatory framework including legislation for
independent sector regulators. Internationally, Arvind has worked with the
United Nations as a Foreign Investment Promotion Expert in countries such
as Uzbekistan, Sudan, China, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Fiji, South Africa, Sudan,
Maldives and others.
Rajiv Takru
Secretary, Department of Financial Services
Ministry of Finance
A graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Indian
Institute of Technology, kharakpur and Post Graduate
in Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburg, Shri Rajiv Takru joined Indian Administrative
Service in the year 1979. Since then, he has held key positions in various
departments such as Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation,
Information and Broadcasting, Defence etc. Prior to joining Department of
Financial services, Shri Takru was holding the office of Additional Secretary,
Health and Family Welfare.
Vijay Bhaskar
Executive Director
Reserve Bank of India, RBI
Shri Vijay Bhaskar joined RBI in 1981 and worked in various
departments in the bank. He was the Nominee Director of
RBI on the Board of a public sector bank. He has chaired
different committees in RBI; Technical Group on Investment
Advisory Services, Working Group on use of Business Correspondents
in Financial Inclusion, Working Group on Branch Authorisation, Working
Group on Statutory Audit of banks. He is a member of financial Markets of
BIS, Basel, Switzerland, Governing Board of NIBM and Chairman on Expert
Group on Financial Benchmarks. He has co-authored a book on ‘Derivatives
Simplified – An introduction to Risk Management’. He is Gold Medalist in
Master in Commerce and holds a PGDBM.
Lise Grande
UN Resident Coordinator & UNDP Resident
Representative, India
Lise Grande is the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP
Resident Representative in India Lise has worked for
the United Nations since 1994, serving in Armenia,
Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor,
Haiti, Occupied Palestine, South Sudan, Sudan and Tajikistan. Lise has been
involved in some of the United Nations’ largest humanitarian operations and
has also served in peace-keeping missions.
Robert A. Annibale
Global Director, Citi Microfinance and Community
Development
Bob Annibale leads Citi’s initiatives and partnerships
supporting community development and microfinance
through financial inclusion, education and asset building;
neighbourhood revitalisation; small business and
microenterprise development. He leads Citi’s global
commercial relationships with microfinance and community institutions, to
expand access to financial services, with particularly focus on developing
innovative platforms for scaling access to finance and savings through
partnerships and correspondents.
Navin Kumar Maini
Deputy Managing Director in Small Industries
Development Bank of India (SIDBI),
Mr. Navin Kumar Maini is Deputy Managing Director
in Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI),
the premier financial institution for MSMEs. He has
more than three and a half decades of experience in the
commercial and development banking field.
Presently, Mr. Maini is a Director on the Boards of India SME Technology
Services Ltd., SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd., SIDBI Trustee Company Ltd., and
India SME Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd. He is a member on the Apex
Committee of SIDBI Innovation & Incubation Centre (SIIC), IIT Kanpur and
also member on the Board of ‘The Montreal Group’ of Business Development
Bank of Canada.
A graduate from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, he holds a Degree in Law from
Delhi University, Postgraduate degree in Management from MDI, Gurgaon
and IIFT, Delhi, besides being a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of
Banking & Finance (CAIIB).
Naina Lal Kidwai
Country Head India, Director HSBC Asia Pacific
Naina Lal Kidwai, Country Head, India, and Executive
Director on the board of HSBC Asia-Pacific, heads the
Indian operations of the HSBC group.
She is actively engaged in trade and industry issues, and
is President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry; member of the Government of
India’s Industry Task Force, and the Working Group on Banking, Financial
Sector Legislative Reforms Commission; and on the governing boards of the
National Council of Applied Economic Research and the National Institute
of Bank Management. She is a member of the BRICS Business Council as a
representative of India and also member of the India Malaysia CEO Forum.
She is also a Global Advisor for Harvard Business School and the Chair of its
India Advisory Board, Chairman of the City of London’s Advisory Council for
India and Non-Executive Director on the Board of Nestle S.A.
Her interest in environmental issues and livelihood creation for women
are evident through her representation on the Shakti Sustainable Energy
Foundation Board, the TERI Advisory Board, the World Economic Forum’s
Global Agenda Council on Climate Change, and the US State Department
International Council on Women’s Business Leadership.
An MBA from Harvard Business School, she is the recipient of many awards
and honours, and makes a regular appearance on listings of the world’s
powerful since 2002. She received the Padma Shri, for her contribution to
Trade & Industry, from the Government of India in 2007.
Stuart P Milne
Chief Executive Officer, HSBC India
Stuart Milne, a graduate in Modern Arabic Studies, joined
HSBC Holdings plc in 1981. In his 31-year career, he has
worked across businesses and geographies, including the
Arabian Gulf, Hong Kong, Philippines, New York, Paris
and Tokyo. In 2007, he was appointed Country Manager
Japan, prior to which he was Head of Corporate and Institutional Banking
Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Stuart was appointed as CEO, HSBC India
in March 2012. He is also a member of the Asia Pacific Executive Committee,
signifying the importance of the India business to HSBC in the region.
Sam Sharpe
Country Head, DFID India
Sam Sharpe has been the country head of DFID India
since September 2010. He has worked for DFID and its
predecessor since 1985, with previous postings in Malawi
and South Africa. Sam was DFID’s finance director from
2007 to 2010.
RESOURCE PERSONS
SUMMIT 2013
Radhika Agashe
Executive Director, ACCESS-ASSIST
Radhika Agashe is the Executive Director of ACCESSASSIST and has led the transition of the microfinance
portfolio and resources from ACCESS into ASSIST.
She specializes in microfinance operations and social
performance management, financial education and
training and curriculum development. She is an active member on Working
Groups of Social Performance Task Force (SPTF) and SMART Client
Protection Campaign and also represents ASSIST on the Responsible Finance
Forum led by the IFC. Radhika has in the past been associated with many
organizations of repute such as EDA Rural Systems, BASIX, Intellecap and
Sambodhi Research. She holds a Post Graduate degree from the Indian
Institute of Forest Management.
Rajeev Ahuja
Head - Strategy
Ratnakar Bank
Mr. Rajeev Ahuja holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce
from the University of Delhi and an MBA from IIM,
Ahmedabad. He brings over 24 years of experience
in investment banking and financial markets in India,
Singapore and Hong Kong. In his current role, he
is responsible for raising capital, overseeing the development of new
businesses, partnerships, and investor relations.
Prior to joining Ratnakar Bank, Mr. Ahuja was with Citibank, India, where
he was heading the Investor Sales business in South Asia. During his stint
with Citibank, Mr. Ahuja established Citi’s Fixed Income Capital Markets
business with a broad product platform across INR and G3 bonds/loans,
structured debt, mezzanine capital. The business grew into a leading fixed
income franchise in India and had been awarded ‘Best India Debt House’
by Euromoney and Asset Finance. Mr. Ahuja has also had a 10 year stint in
capital markets and investment banking divisions of Bankers Trust/Deutsche
Bank in Singapore and Hong Kong.
John Alex
VP & Head-Social Initiatives & Program Director
Equitas Group
After graduating in Agriculture & Rural development,
he started his career as a Group II Gazetted Officer in
Tamil Nadu State Government and served as Extension
Officer (Agri) & Block Development Officer in North Arcot
District, Tamil Nadu from 1979 to 1983. Joined Indian
Overseas Bank as a Probationary Officer and served as Branch Manager,
Assistant Chief Officer, Senior Manager & Chief Manager in various Branches
in Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh from 1983 to 2008.
At Equitas, he was instrumental in setting up the Ecosystem known as
“Equitas Model of Ecosystem” and separate department of social Initiatives
in the field of Skill Development, Market linkages, Education, low cost
Housing, Health services including telemedicine, placement services for
unemployed youth, holistically benefitting 1.5 million SHG families across 8
states in India
Navin Anand
Resource Person, Microfinance Community of
Practice, Solution Exchange, United Nations
Navin Anand worked in DFID funded project of CARE
India - ‘CASHE’; IFAD funded Livelihood Promotion
Project in Uttarakhand (ULIPH); World bank/EEC project
on Strengthening PACS, and also in national and regional
cooperative institutes.
He undertook 20 study/research projects as Coordinator or Core Team
member. He conceptualized and produced - Synthesis document on
Microfinance; Ready Reckoner on Microfinance; and Policy Practice Atlas on
Microfinance.
Anand has done Ph.D on “Self-Help Groups in the Development Process of
Rural Non-farm Sector” and FDP from IIM Ahmedabad. He has published
papers in the area of Cooperatives and Microfinance, Livelihood and MF for
Older persons, and Non-Farm Sector.
Vibhu Arya
Founder, The Flat Pyramid
Vibhu Arya is the founder of ‘The Flat Pyramid’, an
inclusion and ‘markets for poor’consulting practice.
The Flat Pyramid is aimed at architecting ‘inclusive’
public-policy and resource allocation decisions within
political, economic, and social systems and institutions.
His work spans across Microfinance, Housing Microfinance, Branchless
Banking, and Impact Investing. He has completed assignments for Ayani, The
Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), GIZ, ShoreBank International,
Access Development Services and Habitat for Humanity.Vibhu has previously
worked for a decade with Baxter, BHP Billiton, General Electric and at
Citibank, where he managed the microfinance institutions lending business
for North, East and West India.
Vibhu is an alumnus of University of Delhi (MBE) and IIM Ahmedabad (MMP)
Shweta Banerjee
Analyst, CGAP, New Delhi
Based in New Delhi, Shweta Banerjee works on CGAP’s
South Asia financial inclusion initiatives, and leads the
learning agenda on Government to Persons Payments
(G2P) in India which includes the UID enabled direct
benefit transfers. Previously she spent 6 years in
Washington DC. At the World Bank’s South Asia Region on communitydriven, rural livelihoods projects where she undertook qualitative research,
knowledge management, and project development. And as a policy analyst
at the New America Foundation, advocating innovative savings products
and services. From India, Shweta read Social Anthropology at the University
of Chicago and at Cambridge University, UK. You can find her on Twitter @
banerjeeshweta.
Rajesh Bansal
Assistant Director General
Unique Indentification Authority of India (UIDAI)
Mr. Bansal is currently the Assistant Director General
with the UIDAI and is responsible for integration of
Aadhaar in the financial sector. He leads UIDAI’s efforts in
financial inclusion and enabling of cashless transactions
for millions of marginalized residents of India. He has 20 years of experience
in the area of Payment Systems both as a practitioner and a policy maker
at Reserve Bank of India. He has worked closely on the Committees of
RBI for providing Access to Finance to the SME sector & Committee on
Securitization of Trade Credit Receivables.
He has been awarded the Golden Jubilee Scholarship of RBI. He holds a
Masters in Economics and also a Masters in International Development
Policy from Duke University.
JD Bergeron
Executive Director, Truelift
JD Bergeron is the Executive Director of Truelift. He has
over 17 years of experience in international development,
microfinance, and not-for-profit management, including
Kiva Microfunds, Accion International, and the U.S. Peace
Corps. He worked most recently as Senior Director of
Social Performance at Kiva, where he developed the social performance
strategy, scorecard, and badges, completed 100+ social audits of
microfinance partners, and led the growth of the Kiva Fellows Program. He
is actively involved with the Smart Campaign’s Client Voice Task Force, the
Social Performance Task Force, the Responsible Inclusive Finance Working
Group, CERISE SPI, and the Social Performance Committee of Friendship
Bridge in Guatemala. He is a graduate of Washington University in Saint Louis
and the founder of the not-for-profit organization Chooda, with a vision of
personal transformation and global social change. Chooda’s mission is to
create transformative experiences for its participants while providing much
needed resources around the world.
Ms. Rita Bhattacharya
Assistant General Manager
National Housing Bank
She is currently working as an Assistant General Manager
with the National Housing Bank- an apex financial
institution in the field of Housing Finance in the country.
She had a vast experience in the areas of habitat,
sustainable development and business environments amongst different
stakeholders/communities. Her forte has all along been Project Financing,
Development of financial products and Housing Micro Finance. Her stint in
the Bank’s Department of Regulation and Supervision has provided her with
a regulator’s perspective. She also takes care of the technology promotion
activities of the Bank.
Mythili Bhusnurmath
Journalist
Mythili Bhusnurmath is an economist-turned bankerturned journalist with wide and varied interests. She was
the first woman editor of a financial daily in India, does a
bit of teaching in Delhi University and some management
institutions and is presently also associated with the
National Council of Applied Economic Research and the PM’s Economic
Advisory Council.
Jonna Bickel
Technical Advisor
Deutsche Gesellschaftfuer International
Zusammenarbeit ( GIZ)
Jonna Bickel works as a Technical Advisor for the German
Development Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaftfuer
International Zusammenarbeit – GIZ). In a joint project
between GIZ and NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development), she is responsible for microfinance related activities with
a special focus on innovative and demand-oriented financial services for
members of self-help groups and community-based organizations. Before
joining the project in India, she was working for GIZ in Nigeria, Uganda and
Germany on financial system development issues. Ms Bickel has also worked
with CGAP, Making Finance Work for Africa and the German Federal Ministry
for Economic Cooperation and Development
Royston Braganza
CEO
Grameen Capital India Limited
Royston joined Grameen Capital in 2007 to launch the
organization as CEO. He currently oversees all aspects
of operations in India. In his earlier assignment as Senior
Vice President at HSBC, Royston was instrumental in
setting up and heading HSBC’s Microfinance & Priority Sector business.
Prior to that, he was the head of HSBC’s SME Business. Before joining HSBC,
Royston worked in Citibank India for over 8 years in various assignments
across the Consumer Bank and Corporate Bank.
He is a board member of Sa-Dhan and a member of the Microfinance
Resource Group. He has been invited by the United Nations to address
various programs, in India and globally, promoting microfinance as a
sustainable tool to eradicate poverty.
Royston holds a Masters in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj
Institute of Management Studies.
Sharon Buteau
Executive Director, IFMR Research
Sharon is the Executive Director of IFMR Research.
She has worked on impact evaluations on various
development topics, in particular in finance. She has
significant experience on topics such as building better
credit scores for MSMEs, improving the trust relationship
between financial institutions and MSME clients, financial training, and
determinants of entrepreneurial choices. Prior to joining IFMR Research,
she worked for several years as an economic consultant at Analysis Group
in Montreal, Quebec. She holds a BA and a MA from the Université du
Québec à Montréal in Economics and a Msc. in Social Research Methods
(Development Studies) from the London School of Economics.
Amulya Champaitiray
Head, Training vertical at IFMR Research
Amulya is the head of the Training vertical at IFMR
Research, Chennai. He has over ten years of enriched
work experience in diverse field of community
development with special focus on microfinance and
livelihoods. He started his career with reputed grassroots
organizations promoting community institutions and later on, he has
been associated with leading micro-finance policy and capacity building
organizations. As part of his various assignments, he has been directly
involved in action research, policy outreach, training, drawing up business
plan for micro-finance operations, monitoring interventions, setting-up
systems for internal control, promoting community based organization.
He is a postgraduate in management from Entrepreneurship Development
Institute, Ahmedabad.
A Chandrashekhar
Deputy General Manager,
NABARD
Shri Chandrasekhar Annavarapu, Deputy General
Manager, NABARD, India is presently working as Faculty
Member in Bankers Institute of Rural Development
(BIRD), the Training Centre of NABARD. A Post Graduate
in Commerce and a Member of the Indian Institute of Bankers, Mumbai,
he has nearly three decades of experience in development finance and
has worked in areas related to institutional development, micro finance,
rural infrastructure financing and community based livelihood financing.
Shri Chandrasekhar has published papers on topics such as livelihood
opportunities in watershed projects, innovative strategies for financial
inclusion, financing farmers collectives; etc in reputed journals and
publications in India.
Ritesh Chatterjee
Organisational Excellence & Service Quality
SKS Microfinance Ltd
As Head of Organizational Excellence and Service Quality,
Ritesh is responsible for setting up the Strategic mandate
for Lean Management, Operational Excellence, Service
Quality and Customer Advocacy. He has set up this
vertical with adaptation of various methodologies in the verticals of Client
protection, Process & Quality Management in SKS Microfinance by deploying
various aspects of Lean Six Sigma Enterprise and Customer Service
Management to enhance the Customer Experience as well as reduce risk and
cost of operations.
He has international experience in adaptive Quality models in Banking in First
Gulf Bank, U.A.E. as well as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank in India. Ritesh is an
alumini of IIM Ahmedabad ,is a B.E.Mechanical and M.B.A.Finance, He is also
a certified Six Sigma Black Belt from SSQ, USA
Puneet Chopra,
Associate Director, Asia
MicroSave
Puneet Chopra heads Digital Financial Services domain
for Asia at MicroSave. With a career spanning over
two decades, he has diverse experience in various
roles and capacities across banking, financial services,
telecommunications, media and information technology
(IT) sectors and industries. He is an expert in branchless and agency
banking; product innovation and strategy; consumer strategy and CRM;
marketing and distribution strategy; channel development; process design
and reengineering; business planning; operations; and in managing large
programmes. Puneet plays a key role at MicroSave in developing thought
leadership, enhancing knowledge assets, skill building and leadership
development. Puneet has extensive experience working across Africa, AsiaPacific, South-Asia, Europe and North America.
Before joining MicroSave, Puneet worked for Accenture Consulting, IBM
Business Consulting, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Tata group.
Puneet holds a Master of Management and is a gold medallist from the
School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Prof. Samar K. Datta
Institute Professor
Entrepreneurial Development Institute of India
A retired Professor from IIM, Ahmedabad, Prof. Datta
is currently Institute Professor at Entrepreneurial
Development Institute of India at Gandhinagar. A product
of the Departments of Economics at Kolkata Presidency
College, Calcutta University and University of Rochester,
holds 42 years of teaching, research, administrative and consulting
experience at Calcutta University, University of Southern California, Los
Angeles, Visva Bharati and IIM, Ahmedabad. Research areas cover applied
micro-economics, institutional economics, contracts & negotiations,
stakeholder cooperation, trade and competitiveness, natural resources
management, credit, micro-credit and micro-insurance. Has twelve research
monographs, more than 30 cases and more than 40 articles in nationally and
internationally acclaimed books and journals.
Laura Foose
Director
Global Social Performance Task Force
Laura Foose has been the Director of the Global Social
Performance Task Force since 2005, a group of over
1500 donors, investors, microfinance practitioners and
support organizations advancing social performance
assessment and management. In her previous positions with Alternative
Credit Technologies, SEEP Network and FINCA International, she was
active in policy design and advocacy promoting microfinance development
and poverty alleviation in developing and transitional countries. She also
designed microfinance projects, conducted evaluations of MFIs, and worked
extensively in the areas of poverty assessment/outreach.
Ms. Foose is a professor of microfinance at Georgetown University and a
co-founder of Woman Advancing Microfinance. She sits on the board or
advisory committee for the following social performance initiatives: The
Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) project of The Global
Impact and Investing Network; The Social Perforamance Start Up Fund for
National Networks; and Truelift.
Dr. R M Manjunatha Gowda
President,
Karnataka State Cooperative Apex Bank Ltd.,
Bangalore
Dr. R.M. Manjunatha Gowda has been engaged in the
rural Short Term Co-Operative Structure (STCCS) in
Karnataka since 1980.Through this experience he has
developed a keen and deep insight into the issues faced
by the STCCS as well as the Self Help Groups promoted and nurtured by the
STCCS.
He has won several awards and honours for his accomplishments in the
field amongst which are the following: ‘Honorary Doctorate’ awarded by
Kuvempu University, Sahakari Ratna Award by Karnataka State Cooperative
Federation for best cooperator, ‘Shreshta Sahakari Sree’ Award by Karnataka
State Cooperative Federation on occasion of Centenary Celebration of
Cooperative Movement
He is a Director on the Board of several co-operative institutions. Amongst
the many positions that he has held or holds are as follows: Vice President,
National Federation of State Cooperative Banks Ltd. (NAFSCOB), Mumbai,
Director, Karnataka State Coop Federation, Bangalore, Director, Karnataka
State Insurance Co-Operative Society, Director, KSC ARD Bank Ltd.,
Bangalore etc.
Malcolm Harper
Chairman, M-CRIL
Educated at Oxford, Harvard and Nairobi, Malcolm
Harper, worked in marketing in England, and then
taught at the University of Nairobi. He was Professor
of Enterprise Development, and since 1995 he has
worked independently, mainly in India. He has published
on enterprise development, micro-finance and livelihoods, and on child
protection.
He was the Chairman of Basix Finance for ten years, and is the Chairman of
M-CRIL. He is Chair and board member of other institutions in the UK, the
Netherlands and elsewhere, and has worked on poverty issues in South and
SE Asia, Africa, China since 1970.
Steve L. Hollingworth
President, Freedom from Hunger
Steve Hollingworth has served as President of Freedom
from Hunger since September 2011.
An expert in international development, his fields of
expertise include: microenterprise and microfinance,
health, education, agriculture, environment, civil society strengthening,
local capacity-building, governance and emergency relief and rehabilitation.
Prior to joining Freedom from Hunger, Hollingworth spent 26 years with
CARE, most recently as Chief Operating Officer, based in Atlanta, GA. In this
capacity, he was instrumental in developing and implementing organizationwide strategy and was responsible for direct line management of global
operations and programs with a total of 13,000 employees and a budget of
$650 million.
He has also held senior field positions in Asia (India, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh), Africa (Lesotho) and Latin America (Bolivia), building
collaboration between practitioners, technical assistance providers, donors
and government agencies. Mr. Hollingworth has an M.S. in Economics,
Development Studies, from Victoria University of Manchester, UK and a B.A.
in Economics from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.
Jennifer Isern
South Asia Regional Manager
Access to Finance Advisory
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Dr. Jennifer Isern, IFC, brings 25 years of experience in
development in more than 55 countries. She joined IFC
in September 2009 in New Delhi as Regional Manager
for Access to Finance Advisory in South Asia, and the team promotes
microfinance, SMEs, agrifinance, affordable housing, credit bureaus,
collateral registries, retail payments, and energy finance. from 19962009, Dr. Isern helped start CGAP and served as member of the senior
management team and manager for CGAP’s work in Africa and China. Prior
to joining CGAP, Dr. Isern worked with CARE International, USAID, UNDP
and ATT International. A CFA charterholder, Dr. Isern received her master’s
degree from Princeton University and her doctorate in both finance and
international business from Nova Southeastern University.
Balaji Iyer
Director & Global Portfolio Manager, Micro Finance
Standard Chartered Bank
Balaji Iyer is a Director and Global Portfolio Manager,
Micro Finance for Standard Chartered Bank based in
Mumbai. He currently heads the microfinance business
for India and is also responsible to manage and grow
the bank’s microfinance initiative globally in a sustainable manner using
the bank’s Development Organisations (DO) segment platform under
the Financial Institutions Group. He has a career spanning 18 years in
Banking, Corporate and the Development sector and has helped in setting
up the microfinance businesses at The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation (HSBC) and ICICI Bank prior to joining Standard Chartered
Sridhar Iyer
Director, Head of Digital Business
Sridhar Iyer is Head of Digital and Innovation at Citibank
India. Sridhar is a senior banker with a wide range
experience in the areas of e-Business, Digital Payments
and Strategic Marketing. He was one of the key members
of the team that set up Citibank India’s online banking
and e-Commerce businesses in 1999.
Over the last decade, Sridhar has been responsible for growing the
e-Businesses for multinational banks, including Citi and Lloyds Banking Group
in the UK and in Europe. Sridhar has extensive International experience,
particularly in Europe, and has undertaken a variety of strategic e-Business
roles on a global mandate.
Sridhar believes that for organizations the choice is pretty straight forward –
digitize or die. He holds a PGDM from IIM Bangalore and Bachelor’s Degree
in Chemical Engineering from BITS Pilani.
Shweta Iyer
AVP-HR Initiatiatives
Suryoday Microfinance Pvt. Ltd.
With more than 13 years of Human Resource experience,
Shweta has a background in leading Human Resources
for large and small companies in various industry
sectors. She has history of aligning people strategies
with business imperatives creating a diverse, engaging and collaborative
culture. She is presently with Suryoday Microfinance Private Limited as
Associate Vice President-HR Initiatives. Prior to Suryoday, Shweta had stint
with companies like Voltas Ltd., Paramount Health care Management,
IL&FS Asset Management. She believes role of Human Resources is getting
more challenging and exciting as HR Professional are now more focused
on catalyzing business though innovation. She says, Human Resources in
Microfinance Industry is playing much more critical role for sustainability of
growth as industry depends on person-to person contact.
She holds Master’s degree in Human Resources.
Sriram Jagannathan
CEO, Airtel Money
Sriram joined Bharti Airtel in January 2010 to head the
airtel money business and define the mCommerce &
mPayments strategy and help build a viable and
scalable business model for delivering large scale financial
inclusion in India.
He spearheaded the national roll out of India’s first mobile wallet service
‘airtel money’ in 2012, which provides an extensive range of services across
merchants. Sriram’s strategy and vision of airtel money made it the best
mobile money service in India in terms of reach and quality of service.
Prior to joining airtel, Sriram was a consumer banker with over 21 years of
experience with Citibank, where he headed several business units of Citi,
with the last 5 years in Japan as the e-business head.
Sriram is an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and an Engineer from IIT Delhi.
Anurag Jain
Joint Secretary (IF & CVO),
Department of Financial Services,
Ministry of Finance
Government of India
Anurag Jain is an Electrical Engineer from IIT – Kharagpur
followed by Masters in Public Administration from
Maxwell School of Syracuse, USA. He has an experience
of nearly three decades and has been worked in various government
departments Rural Development, Health & Family Welfare, Energy,
Information Technology.
In the previous assignment as Secretary, Chief Minister’s Office, coordinated
activities of development departments in the State Government; Planning,
finance, PWD, Irrigation, Public Health, Engineering, Health, Education,
Women & Child Development, Tribal Welfare, SC Welfare. He is Government
of India nominated director on the boards of Punjab National Bank, National
Insurance Co. Ltd. and IFCI Ltd.
Mukul Jaiswal
Managing Director
CASHPOR Micro Credit
Mr. Mukul Jaiswal is the Managing Director of CASHPOR
Micro Credit, a Section 25 Microfinance Institution
working in eastern U.P. & Bihar.
Under his leadership, CASHPOR was conferred with the “BEST MFI of the
Year Award in Large Category in 2012” at Microfinance India Summit 2012 and
recently got a “Truelift Leader Milestone” Award for being the only global
Leader in following the Pro-Poor principles of Truelift at Microcredit Summit
in Philippines.
A Chartered Accountant by qualification, he started his professional
career with Deloitte for a brief period and then set up his own practice.
After practicing as chartered accountant for more than 10 years, he took
retirement from practice and in 2009 decided to join, CASHPOR Micro Credit.
Mr. Jaiswal also serves on the board of several other Companies and Not for
Profit institutions including MFIs.
K. Jayachandran
Managing Director,
Hexa Resource Axis India Pvt Ltd (HR Axis India)
K. Jayachandran is a Mechanical Engineer, Postgraduate
in Public Administration and Human Resource
Management. He is also a Law Graduate and a Certified
Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers (I). He has over
38 years of enriched experience in the corporate. As
Head - HR & Member, Board of Management, he has served Gammon India
Ltd, Mumbai, for about 11 years. He has worked as Dean, National Institute
of Construction Management & Research, Hyderabad. He is credited
with launching and establishing new construction and skill development
programs for the construction industry and is now internationally acclaimed.
Prior to this he has served as HR Manager, in Canbank Mutual Fund & New
Bank of India and as Mechanical Engineer in Indian Air Force.
Jugal Kataria
Chief Financial Officer
Satin Creditcare Network Ltd
Jugal is a graduate from Shree Ram College of Commerce
and is a Cost Accountant, Chartered Accountant and
Company Secretary with over 21 years of relevant
experience. He has participated in an ‘Internal Auditors
Training Course’ for ISO 9000 and HBS Accion Program on Strategic
Leadership for Microfinance. He attended leadership program organized
by Women’s World Banking at Wharton Business School, University of
Pennsylvania in 2011. Mr. Jugal worked with Apollo Tyres Limited and Berger
Paints (India) Limited before joining SCNL in 2000.
Raj khaira
VP, Relationship Management and Strategic
Alliances, FINO
Raj Khaira has over 28 years experience in various
sectors including, Publishing, Print & Pack, Software
Development, BPO/KPO, Microfinance and setting
up and managing Financial Inclusion rural channels.
Raj has been with FINO since 2007 after moving to India in March 2006.
Initially he managed the Microfinance vertical and was responsible for
technical services tie-ups with 28 MFIs in India. From 2009 till 2010, Raj was
VP / Operational Finance and Agent Management for FINO. Key functions
included Operational Finance, Cash / Agent Management, Reconciliation and
Cash Risk Mitigation. He was responsible for managing 23,000 strong FINO
Agent (Bhandhu) network operating across 260 districts in 21 States of India
and for monthly Cash movement management worth Rs. 4 Billion.
Currently Raj is VP relationship management and strategic alliances for
FINO’s Lending Vertical (SHG/JLG). Raj is a Computer Engineer (University
of Newcastle, Australia) and an MBA (Monash University, Melbourne,
Australia).
Suresh K Krishna
Managing Director
Grameen Financial Services Private Limited
Mr. Suresh has been at the helm of activities at Grameen
Financial Services Pvt. Ltd since it’s inception in 1999. Mr.
Suresh has guided the company from the startup stage
as an NGO to a large with strong social focus as an NBFC.
Mr. Suresh was part of the team instrumental in setting up of The
Association of Karnataka Microfinance Institutions. He also served on the
Board of Sa-dhan – a national MFI Association, and currently serves the
board of MFIN an national network of NBFC MFI’s, Community for Open
Source Microfinance (COSM – Seattle), Suddanand Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. He
also serves on the Management committee of FKCCI and the Chairman of
Microfinance & financial inclusion committee of FKCCI.
Apart from microfinance, Mr. Suresh takes a keen interest in micro housing,
financial literacy, water and sanitation, client education, alternative energies,
waste management, livelihoods & healthcare for the poor.
Arvind Kumar
Joint Secretary, Deptt of Financial Services
Ministry of Finance
Arvind Kumar graduated with a degree in Economics
from St. Stephens College, Delhi in 1987 followed by a
post- graduate diploma in management (PGDM) from
the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in
1989. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1991 and has worked
in Andhra Pradesh from 1991 till 2006. He did his Masters in Public Policy
(MPP) from Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University in 2006-07
as a Robert McNamara scholar. He also did course on Leadership and
Excellence as a Chevening Gurukul scholar at London School of Economics
and Political Science in 2010. He has twenty years of experience in public
policy and governance with a focus on the development sector. His work
in ‘arresting female foeticide’ and restoring the sex ratio at birth is widely
ascknowledged.
Subhash Kumar
founder member (Secretary)
Samadhan Kendra
Subhash Kumar aged around 38 yrs, Graduate in
Sociology form Muzaffarpur University is the founder
member (Secretary) of “SAMADHAN KENDRA” an NGO
working in remote and difficult Region in Bihar.
In the past, he worked as a Supervisor & Coordinator with NYK and other
NGO working in the district and have also attended various training program/
exposure visits on SHG, Micro Finance organized by RGVN, SEWA and CYSD,
across the Nation.
Today, SK has a rich experience of around one decade towards promotion of
Self-Help Groups and bank linkage and has been recognized and awarded by
NABARD.
A Ramesh Kumar
CMD
Swarna Pragati Housing Microfinance Pvt. Ltd.
A. Ramesh Kumar is the founder, promoter and CMD
of Swarna Pragati Housing Microfinance Pvt. Ltd., a
Company pioneering a new approach to Rural Housing
Finance. He is a professional banker with more than 30
years of experience in Banking across India and internationally with State
Bank of India.
As Chief General Manager, he headed SBI’s operations very successfully in
SBI’s Western region with business turnover of USD 15 billion and was the
moving spirit behind the emergence of a microfinance wave in Maharashtra.
He also headed the NABARD National Committee on Rural Habitat.
He has been associated with several prestigious bodies viz. Member,
Academic Council, NMIMS, Mumbai; Member, Advisory Committee,
Development Alternatives, New Delhi; Chairman of SME Chamber of India
(Northern Region); CII representative on the Key Advisory Group ( MSME) of
the Ministry of Finance.
Nilanjan Majumdar
Head – Inclusive Banking
AXIS Bank Limited, Mumbai
Nilanjan Majumdar is a senior banker with over 17
Years of diverse experience in Retail & Rural Banking,
IT, Telecom & Consumer Non Durables. He currently
heads Inclusive Banking with AXIS Bank Ltd. He was
instrumental in making Axis Bank one of the pioneers in the Inclusive
Banking space in terms of successful experiments with different business
and operating models and was responsible in facilitating creation of a Rs
3,500 Crs loan book under Inclusive Banking.Prior to joining Axis Bank, he
held senior positions with Centurion Bank Of Punjab Ltd and HDFC Bank.
He holds a PG Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of
Management, Calcutta and a BEE from Jadavpur University.
Vivek Kumar Malhotra
Deputy General Manager
SIDBI Foundation for Micro Credit
Shri Vivek Kumar Malhotra is currently a Deputy General
Manager in SIDBI Foundation for Micro Credit at its Head
Office in Lucknow. He is responsible for entire gamut of
activities of SIDBI’s microfinance operations covering
lending, equity investments, borrowings from multilateral and bilateral
agencies as well as taking up various sectoral initiatives. He has more than
20 years of experience in various areas of banking and finance including
financing of SMEs, NBFCs, infrastructure projects, securitisation deals, etc.
He holds a management degree from IIM Calcutta.
Rajender Mohan Malla
Managing Director & CEO PTC India Financial Services Limited
Shri R. M. Malla has held top and significant decisionmaking positions in Banks & Financial Institutions during
his long 38 years in the Banking / financing industry. In
past, he has held the position of Chairman & Managing
Director of IDBI Bank Ltd, Chairman & Managing Director of Small Industries
Development Bank of India and CEO of IFCI Ltd.
A professional of long standing in the industry, he has strong relations with
major Multi-lateral Organizations such as World Bank, ADB, KfW, JICA, AfD,
etc. and number of foreign and domestic infrastructure finance companies,
Banks, FIs and project developers.
He is an M.Com from Delhi University and an MBA from Faculty of
Management Studies, University of Delhi and is a Certificated Associate
of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB). Shri Malla has also received
several awards, including “Outstanding CEO Award” from Association of
Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific.
Veena Mankar
Managing Director
Swadhaar FinServe Pvt. Ltd
Banking and Financial Services professional with
expertise in trade and structured finance, financing for
SMEs and microfinance Veena Mankar has over 35 years
of experience in financial services, with banks, nonbanking financial institutions and as a strategy consultant – both in India and
Internationally.
She is the Founder/Managing Director of Swadhaar FinServe Pvt. Ltd., an
NBFC-MFI and the founder of Swadhaar FinAccess, a non-profit that provides
financial literacy training and facilitates access to non-credit financial
products for the urban poor.
Veena currently serves as a nominee Director on the Boards of factoring
ventures in India and Dubai. She is also on the Board of Liberty Videocon
General Insurance Company Limited, in India. Veena has a post-graduation
in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management in
Ahmedabad.
Sanjeev Mantri
Senior General Manager, ICICI Bank Ltd.
Sanjeev Mantri heads the ICICI’s Rural & Inclusive
Banking portfolio across the country.
He joined ICICI Bank Ltd in 2004 to take charge of the
Corporate Linked SME lending portfolio and has been
responsible for introducing various innovative products to service the needs
of this segment. Under his leadership, SME business for bank had seen a
steady growth in the past years. In 2012 he joined as Business Head for the
Rural and Inclusive Banking portfolio, one of the key drivers of priority sector
lending in ICICI Bank. Under his leadership, the portfolio has almost doubled
within one financial year.
Prior to joining ICICI Bank, he has spent over 7 years with BNP Paribas,
Mumbai. A qualified Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant, Sanjeev is a
regular speaker in many national and international forums for the bank.
Shri D K Mishra
Dy General Manager
Micro Credit Innovations Deptt
NABARD, Mumbai
Shri D K Mishra is presently working as Deputy General
Manager in Micro Credit Innovations Deptt of NABARD.
He joined NABARD in 1985 at Bhopal and has since
worked at five different centres including as District Development Manager
simultaneously in Hazaribag and Chatra Districts of Jharkhand, two of the
most backward and Left Wing Extremism affected districts of the country.
He has been closely associated with SHG-Bank Linkage programme since
its early stages at field level and now at policy level in HO. He has also
been associated with various other functioning of NABARD like project
formulations and sanctions, institutional development, bank supervision,
natural resource management (Watershed and Wadi programmes), RIDF
projects etc. He has also served on the boards of two RRBs for about 8
years.
Alok Misra
CEO of M-CRIL
Alok is the CEO of M-CRIL, a global microfinance rating
agency. He has 22 years of rich professional experience
in rural development, rural finance/microfinance and
research at both policy and implementation level. Prior
to M-CRIL, Alok worked with NABARD. Alok was part of
multi institutional task force responsible for setting up
India’s first online commodities exchange. Alok has undertaken professional
work across sixteen countries in Asia, Africa and the Pacific. He is a Fellow at
Tufts University and holds a doctorate in Development Studies from Victoria
University, New Zealand and a Master in Development Management degree
from the Asian Institute of Management, Manila.
Brij Mohan
Chairman,
RGVN (North East) Microfinance Ltd
Brij Mohan is the founding Chairman of ACCESS and
has relinquished his position from the ACCESS Board of
Directors as on 31st March 2013. He is also the former
Executive Director of SIDBI and the co-founder of SIDBI
Foundation for Micro Credit. He is the chair of Ananya Finance for Inclusive
Growth as well as of Micro Save. He is also a director on the Boards of Micro
Rating International Ltd and Foundation for MSME Clusters. Besides this, he
is the Chairman of RGVN (North East) Microfinance Ltd. Brij Mohan plays an
active role in promoting the responsible finance agenda within the sector.
Vijay Nadkarni
Managing Director
Krishna Bhima Samruddhi Local Area Bank
Vijay Nadkarni is the Managing Director of Krishna Bhima
Samruddhi Local Area Bank. The Bank, with its operations
in four districts of A.P. and Karnataka was promoted by
the Basix Group in 2001. The mission of the Bank is to
provide financial services to the underserved, particularly women and rural
poor, with an ultimate goal of promoting a large number of sustainable
livelihoods. Shri Nadkarni has over three decades of experience in the fields
of banking, education, banking technology and the development sector. He
has worked with State Bank of India and besides volunteering for many nonprofit organisations, has headed a consortium of voluntary organisations
working for enhancing the credibility of the sector.
Girish Nair
Senior Operations Officer
Access to Finance Advisory Services in South Asia,
International Finance Corporation’s (IFC)
Girish Nair is a Senior Operations Officer with the
International Finance Corporation’s Access to Finance
Advisory Services in South Asia, leading the microfinance,
responsible finance and insurance advisory initiatives in the region. In this
role, Girish has been instrumental in launching several transformative
programs around microfinance risk management, micro-insurance/pensions
and responsible finance. He has over 19 years of professional experience in
rural finance spanning the public, corporate and NGO sectors and brings a
unique understanding of financial inclusion and responsible finance from the
perspectives of different stakeholder groups. Prior to joining IFC, Girish was
the Credit and Policy Lead for Microfinance and Financial Inclusion at HDFC
Bank. He has also served as the India Country Representative for Grameen
Foundation and the Chief Executive Director of Grama Vidiyal Microfinance,
among other positions. Girish holds two post graduate degrees including an
MBA in rural management from IRMA.
Tara Nair
Associate professor
Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR)
Having completed her MPhil and PhD in Applied
Economics and Economics respectively from the Centre
for Development Studies, Trivandrum, Tara Nair has
worked on the faculty of a few academic institutions
since 1993. She also headed research at the Friends of Women’s World
Banking (India) during 2007-09. Currently she is an associate professor with
GIDR, Ahmedabad.
Tara’s research on microfinance largely concerns issues in policy and
institutional development. She has undertaken primary research across
Indian states and countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar, and consulted
many national and international programmes/ organisations. Her papers
have appeared in several academic journals and books.
Y. C. Nanda
Chairman, ACCESS ASSIT
Y. C. Nanda did his post graduation from the Delhi School
Of Economics in 1964 securing first rank in the University.
For a year, Mr. Nanda worked as a Lecturer in the Shri
Ram College of Commerce, Delhi and thereafter for a
short period in the State Bank of India before joining the
RBI. Working in RBI till 1983, Mr. Nanda then exercised the option to move
to NABARD. In 2003, he retired as Chairman of NABARD. The Government
of India appointed Y. C. Nanda as a member of the National Commission for
Farmers in 2004, whose work was completed in November 2006. Mr. Nanda
has worked as a microfinance expert with FAO, IFAD, UNOPS, and GTZ for
their projects in India and abroad. Additionally, he has also worked with
NCAER and Sir Ratan Tata Trust as a consultant.
Presently, he is Director/Trustee with a number of institutions in the
microfinance, rural development, and management education sectors in
India.
Dr. Narendranath
Head, Resource and Research Centre (RRC)
PRADAN
Dr. Narendranath, has been working in PRADAN, a
prestigious livelihood promotion institution in India
since 1989. For the first 12 years of his career, he worked
on the Jharkhand-based projects of PRADAN and then
moved to Rajasthan to initiate PRADAN’s intervention there. His work in the
field mostly involved promoting SHG based poor peoples’ institutions and
undertaking large scale livelihood interventions.
Narendranath currently heads the Resource and Research Centre of
PRADAN. He also anchors the newly floated NRLM Support Organization
that has evolved as a unique partnership model in which an NGO works
very closely with a State flagship programme by providing knowledge
and capacity building support. Narendranath is a graduate in Mechanical
engineering from Kerala University and holds a rural management degree
from Institute of Rural Management, Anand.
Meenakshi Nath
Deputy Head & Head, Private Sector Development.
DFID India
As Deputy Head, Meenakshi is responsible for DFID
India strategy and evaluation. The Private sector role
involves pioneering a new approach to programming for
DFID in India, which will now be up-scaled across DFID
worldwide. This new approach uses a mix of equity,
loan and grant to deliver impact in the low income states. Meenakshi has
previously managed DFID’s state level partnerships with Bihar, Orissa and
Madhya Pradesh. A graduate from IIM Ahmedabad, Meenakshi started
in the private sector, moved out to become an entrepreneur, exporting
leather goods to Europe. A personal commitment to development drew her
into working with international and domestic NGOs, where she undertook
analysis and provided advice on a range of issues such as social exclusion,
trade policy, industrial safety and labour standards. Meenakshi worked in
CARE-India as well, focusing on microfinance.
Uttam Nayak
Group Country Manager India & South Asia
Visa
Uttam Nayak is the Group Country Manager for India and
South Asia. He is responsible for all business operations,
strategy development, client, government and regulatory
relationships and management of Visa’s business in India,
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan.
Mr. Nayak has been instrumental in driving cashless payments and supports
financial inclusion in the region. He also manages the company’s innovation
strategy across key areas including e-Commerce, mobile, deepening the
acceptance footprint and building an ecosystem which is secure and reliable.
Before joining Visa in 1996, he has worked with the technology applications
division of the US Department of Energy.
Mr. Nayak holds a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from the
University of Texas, USA, and an Engineering degree in Electronics from
Bangalore University, India.
Chandni Ohri
CEO, Grameen Foundation India
Chandni Ohri is CEO of Grameen Foundation India
(GFI), which was established in August 2010 as a wholly
owned subsidiary of Grameen Foundation. Building on
Grameen Foundation’s existing work to provide access
to microfinance and information for the poor in India, GFI
works to increase the scale and scope of poverty-alleviation efforts there,
recognizing the central role a country the size of India would play in such
efforts.
She previously served as Director for Asia programs at Grameen Foundation,
advancing their mission in India and Pakistan and providing a mix of financial
and technical support to a number of microfinance institutions over that
time. Chandni completed her MBA from Indian Institute of Management,
Bangalore, and a Masters in International Development from University of
Washington, Seattle.
Kalpana Pant
Joint Director of Chaitanya
Kalpana Pant, M.Phil from JNU, is the Joint Director of
Chaitanya, a NGO, working for empowerment of rural
women since the last 14 years. She has been involved in
capacity building of community based organisations to
take up financial intermediation. She was team leader of
the study on federations conducted by Sadhan, wrote a paper on impact of
micro finance on dalit women, and published research on cash flow status of
farmers’s in Maharashtra to design strategies to address agrarian distress.
She prepared transition strategy document for Community Banks, to help
UN Habitat and USAID to facilitate smooth transition from the project to
Community.
She is the recipient of Woman Intrapreneur of the year 2010, by Praj Maha
Intrapreneur Awards 2010. She is currently involved in designing cash flow
tools for Vidarbha farmers for household level financial counselling.
Baidya Nath Paul
Director and General Secretary of SPADE
Baidya Nath Paul is Director and General Secretary of
SPADE and is working since 2003. He is the overall incharge of all activities pertaining to Micro-finance, SHG
Promotion and Capacity Building Program. Mr. Paul has
32 years experience in the field of Rural Development
and he has worked with NDDB, West Bengal Co-operative Milk Producers
Federation, BSWI – a NGO. His experience entails Community Organization
Building, Micro-finance Program Management, Cooperative Management,
Training, Livelihood Intervention, Business Development Plan, Project
formulation, Planning, Implementation and Holistic Development with Govt.
Department Linking, etc.
He holds a bachelors degree in Dairy Technology, General Management
Program from IRMA.
Nikhil Prabhu
Managing Director
Delphi Research Services Private Limited
He is the founder and Managing Director of Delphi
Research Services Private Limited.
Mr. Prabhu has spent most of his career in the fields of
market research and strategic consulting over the last 30
years.
Mr. Prabhu has worked on a wide range of assignments in India and overseas
across diverse verticals, including banking and financial services and
healthcare.
His prime research and strategic consulting interests in the development
domain include microfinance, insurance for the weaker sections (life, nonlife and health), healthcare for the poor, micro-enterprises and industrial
clusters.
Alok Prasad
Chief Executive Officer,
Micro Finance Institutions Network (MFIN)
Mr.Alok Prasad is a veteran banker with over 30 years
of both public and private sector banking and financial
services experience. He was formerly the Country
Director of Citi Microfinance Group (India) and the Head
of Strategy, Business Development for the Global Consumer Group Citibank
India. Prior to joining Citibank Mr. Prasad served with distinction in the
RBI for over 15 years across various departments of the Bank. He was also
a member of the start-up team of the National Housing Bank, a statutory
body wholly owned by RBI, where he played a pivotal role in the formulation
of policies for the development of the housing finance sector in India. Mr.
Prasad, recently, served on the Committee set up by the Ministry of Finance,
Government of India, for drafting of the Micro Finance Bill for India.
Vineet Rai
CEO, Intellecap Group
Vineet has experience in leading innovative interventions
at the crossroad of development and finance and brings
unique understanding of Enterprises based development
approach through interventions in Venture Capital and
Intellectual Capital.
Vineet founded Aavishkaar, an equity fund investing in Entrepreneurs
engaging with the bottom of the Pyramid and advising US $ 160 Million of
investments.
Vineet Co-founded and Chairs Intellecap Group and its subsidiary
Intellegrow. Vineet also chairs the Board of Villgro Innovation Foundation.
Vineet has received awards including the G20 SME Finance Award, UNDPIBLF World Business Award, Ashoka Fellowship and Honorary Membership
of XLRI Alumni Association
Dr. D.S.K.RAO
Regional Director
Microcredit Summit Campaign for Asia-Pacific.
Dr. Rao is a qualified trainer on poverty identification
tools including the Progress Out Of Poverty Index. He
has led nearly one hundred workshops and trainings on
the use of these tools for practitioners in eight countries
of Asia. He was closely associated with the National Surveys in Bangladesh
and India during 2009-11, for measuring and tracking the poverty levels of
microfinance clients.
Dr. Rao is presently working on integrating health with microfinance,
partnering with a few prominent microfinance practitioners. He provides
technical assistance to MFIs on evaluating impact of integrating health with
microfinance. He is also promoting partnerships between microfinance and
health sectors with the objective of providing MFI clients with improved
access to information, services and products related to health.
Stephen Rasmussen
Head, Technology and Business Model Innovation
Team, CGAP
Stephen Rasmussen heads CGAP’s Technology and
Business Model Innovation Team, and has more than
25 years of experience in microfinance leadership, with
extensive field experience in Asia. He manages CGAP’s
Technology Program which works to expand financial services for the poor
using mobile phones and other technologies. Prior to CGAP, Rasmussen
was the World Bank’s microfinance focal point for South Asia as well as
the IFC’s nominee director on the boards of two microfinance banks. From
2001 to 2008 he was CEO of the Pakistan Microfinance Network. From 1994
to 2003 he headed the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, a large rural
development program in northern Pakistan, where he also helped establish
First MicroFinanceBank, the first microfinance bank in Pakistan.clusters.
Michael Rauenhorst
Vice President
Moody’s Analytics
Michael Rauenhorst is Vice President of Moody’s
Analytics’ Social Performance Group where he develops
risk management products and services for social
investors and microfinance institutions. He previously
worked with Deutsche Bank for 13 years where he co-developed some of the
first investment funds in the microfinance industry. Michael is a member of
the Social Performance Task Force Investor Working Group and the SMART
Campaign Certification Task Force. He serves on the board of the Deutsche
Bank Microfinance Development Fund, the Global Commercial Microfinance
Consortium, Microlumbia, and Jamicro Ltd., an MFI in Jamaica. He also
serves as Chair of the Opus Prize Foundation. Mr. Rauenhorst holds an MBA
from Columbia Graduate School of Business, a JD from William Mitchell Law
School, and an AB from the University of Notre Dame.
I.Ramachandra Reddy
Consultant (Financial inclusion)
National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)
Delhi
I.Ramachandra Reddy, a B.sc (Agrl) & CAIIB, is currently
working as Consultant (Financial inclusion) NRLM,
Delhi. He has worked extensively in area of SHG
and financial inclusion. He was actively associated in
promotion and financing SHGs during 1999-2002 as Chairman of RRB under
UNDP Programme and SEPUP in Mahaboobnagar District of AP. He was
Instrumental in financing 2lakh SHGs by the Branches of SBI during 20032011.
Mr. Reddy is one among the three members who have drafted BC/BF Manual
containing the operational guidelines for implementing BC/BF Model in SBI.
He was also actively associated in implementation of financial inclusion by
using Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) solutions.
C. S. Reddy
Chief Executive Officer
APMAS
C.S. Reddy is the founding CEO of APMAS, a national level
technical support organization with a vision “Sustainable
Women Self Help Movement in India”. He has over
24 years of experience in the development sector,
particularly in the microfinance and livelihood.
Mr. Reddy worked with CARE International in India for a period of 12 years.
He provided advisory and consultancy services to the IFAD, World Bank,
DFID, CGAP, GIZ, CARE, CRS, Raks Thai Foundation of Thailand, State
Governments and a large number of NGOs in India. He was a member of
the Planning Commission’s Steering Committee on Rural Livelihoods &
Rural Governance and also chaired the Working Group on National Rural
Livelihood Mission (12th Five Year Plan). More recently, Mr. Reddy was
involved in IFAD’s post-project evaluation of National Microfinance Support
Program of SIDBI.
Larry Reed
Director,
Microcredit Summit Campaign
Larry Reed is the director of the Microcredit Summit
Campaign. He has worked for more than 25 years
in designing, supporting and leading activities and
organizations that empower poor people to transform
their lives and their communities. For most of that time
Reed worked with Opportunity International, including five years as their
Africa regional director and eight years as the first CEO of the Opportunity
International Network.
Reed has taught at the Boulder Institute of Microfinance for 15 years,
served as the chair of the SEEP Network, and consulted with industry-wide
initiatives like the Smart Campaign for Client Protection and MicroFinance
Transparency.
Larry authored the State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report in
2011, 2012, and 2013 and has contributed to several books on finance.
He is a graduate of Wheaton College and the John F. Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University.
Elisabeth Rhyne
Managing Director
Center for Financial Inclusion, Accion
Elisabeth Rhyne works to bring together leaders in
financial services to address challenges facing the
microfinance industry today. She is a co-creator of the
Smart Campaign for client protection in microfinance.
As Senior Vice President of Accion(2000-2008), Ms. Rhyne
led Accion’s initial entry into Africa and India and directed the organization’s
research efforts to develop new financial products.
Ms. Rhyne was the director of the Office of Microenterprise Development at
the U.S. Agency for International Development from 1994 to 1998 where she
developed and led USAID’s Microenterprise Initiative.
Ms. Rhyne has published numerous articles and five books on microfinance,
including ‘Mainstreaming Microfinance: How Lending to the Poor
Began, Grew and Came of Age in Bolivia’ and the most recent book titled
‘Microfinance for Bankers and Investors’.
Ms. Rhyne holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard
University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and humanities from
Stanford University.
Alexandra (Kobishyn) Rizzi
Deputy Director of the Smart Campaign
Alexandra (Kobishyn) Rizzi is the Deputy Director of
the Smart Campaign and works closely on Campaign
strategy, communications and management. Prior
to joining the Smart Campaign and Accion, Alex was
a Project Development Manager at Innovations for
Poverty Action where she helped to create the Micro savings and Payments
Innovation Initiative (now part of the Global Financial Inclusion Initiative).
She has also worked at the Centre for Micro Finance at IFMR Research in
Chennai, India where she was the Head of Knowledge Management and
Dissemination. At CMF she contributed to the launch of the Microfinance
Researchers Alliance Program (MRAP).Alex holds a bachelor’s degree in
political science from Princeton University and a Master of Science in Foreign
Service from Georgetown University.
Avijit Saha
Head, Rural & Inclusive Banking vertical
ICICI Bank
PSIG programme.
Shri Pradip Kumar Saha, is a senior development banker
with more than 30 years of experience. He started his
banking career with IDBI and has been with SIDBI since
its inception. At present, he is heading SFMC, Promotion
and Development Vertical of the Bank and leading the
He has been a member of various committees of the Bank at the highest
level. He has participated in various national and international programmes
conducted by reputed organizations such as Harvard Business School
[USA], Asian Institute of Management [Philippines], Cranfield School of
Management [UK] to name a few. He was a part of Indian SME delegation to
USA in the year 1999 and also led a MSME delegation to the World SME Expo
[Hong Kong] in the year 2008.
Currently, he is in the Board of four MFIs and a Member of the Sa-Dhan
Board.
Pradip Kumar Saha
Chief General Manager & Head
SIDBI Foundation for Micro Credit (SFMC)
Larry Reed is the director of the Microcredit Summit
Campaign. He has worked for more than 25 years
in designing, supporting and leading activities and
organizations that empower poor people to transform
their lives and their communities. For most of that time
Reed worked with Opportunity International, including five years as their
Africa regional director and eight years as the first CEO of the Opportunity
International Network.
Reed has taught at the Boulder Institute of Microfinance for 15 years,
served as the chair of the SEEP Network, and consulted with industry-wide
initiatives like the Smart Campaign for Client Protection and MicroFinance
Transparency.
Larry authored the State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report in
2011, 2012, and 2013 and has contributed to several books on finance.
He is a graduate of Wheaton College and the John F. Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University.
Amarnath Samarapally
Lead Analyst with MIX’s Asia
Amarnath Samarapally is the Lead Analyst with MIX’s Asia
team located in Hyderabad, India and he is responsible
for collecting and analyzing financial and non-financial
data on regional MFIs and managing relationships with
MFIs and other service providers throughout the region.
Amar joined MIX three years ago and prior to which, he worked as a Business
Analyst for 3i InfoTech providing investment management solutions,
working with various insurance and mutual fund companies; in addition, he
has experience in the fields of accounts and market risk from his work with
Rabo India Finance.
Amar is a recipient of a Masters in Finance from ICFAI School of Financial
Studies as well as a Bachelors of Commerce from Osmania University.
Najibullah Samim
Executive Director
Afghanistan Microfinance Association
Najibullah Samim has been serving as the Executive
Director of Afghanistan Microfinance Association (AMA)
since April 2011. Previously he worked as Managing
Director of Microfinance Agency for Development and
Rehabilitation of Afghan Communities (MADRAC). He has also served as
Board member and Chairman of AMA for many years. He has 16 years of
working experience in the field of Development out of which 8 years in the
field of Microfinance.
Mr. Samim obtained his MBA degree from Preston University in 2002 and his
B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering in 1997. He has attended many international
conferences as speaker, panelist and participant. He has been a board
member of the South Asian Microfinance Network (SAMN) since 2008.
Abhijit Sharma
Associate Professor,
Indian Institute of Bank Management
Abhijit Sharma, is currently working as an Associate
Professor, Indian Institute of Bank Management. He
was also heading the Centre for Microfinance Research,
North East region Centre (sponsored by NABARD), under
which he undertook several policy level studies on microfinance, financial
inclusion and livelihood. He also authored the study on Microfinance in the
North East sponsored by Sa-dhan.
Prof Sharma was instrumental in setting up of Chief Minister’s Microfinance
scheme in Assam as a Project Director. He was associated with the Planning
Commission, NABARD, Govt of Assam, Govt. of Meghalaya etc in trying
to expand financial access in the North East Region. His current interests
include financial systems and livelihoods in the remote and mountain areas
including microfinance and Financial Inclusion.
Eric Savage
President
Unitus Capital
Eric Savage, Co-Founder and President of Unitus Capital,
has over 20 years of experience in investment banking.
In 2007, he moved to India to set up Unitus Capital (UC).
At UC, he led the company in raising over $900 million for
over 40 social businesses in Asia.
Previously, Eric directed Citigroup’s Asia Power & Infrastructure Investment
Banking Group and helped secure and execute multiple landmark equity,
debt and M&A transactions.
Eric is a graduate (cum laude) of Duke University and of Harvard’s Kennedy
School, where he received the Lucius N. Littauer Fellow Award, the
program’s top honor. Eric serves on numerous boards including Duke
University’s Impact Investing Initiative.
Achla Savyasaachi
Vice President
Sa-Dhan
Achla Savyasaachi is the Vice President of Sa-Dhan,
the National Association of Community Development
Finance Institutions. She led the work of the microfinance
association in the areas of policy making, capacity
building and standards for building the microfinance sector in India.
Significant among these has been her work on the microfinance bill and
Code of Conduct for the microfinance sector in India. She has been a
member of the Task Force set up by the National Commission for Enterprises
in the organized sector on Access to Finance, Raw material, and Marketing,
Core Group on Financing of Enterprises in the Unorganized sector, Task
Force set up by Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation on
access to formal finance for the urban poor etc.
She is a fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, and
Indian Institute of Human Rights. She also has a degree in Law.
Dr. Kalpana Sankar
Managing Director
Hand in Hand
Equipped with double doctorate in Physical Sciences and
in Women’s Studies and Self-Help Groups, Dr. Sankar
brings onboard more than two decades of experience
of working in the sectors of microfinance and micro
enterprise development, livelihoods, education, health,
citizens’ centers, self-help groups etc.
Till date, she has handled several international missions and has led
assignments funded by UNOPS, UNDP, Christian Aid and Wetlands
International. She has supported the Government worldwide including
that of South Africa, Afghanistan and Brazil in numerous microfinance, job
creation and poverty reduction programmes.
Prior to her present role, she has functioned as the M&E Officer for the
International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Dr. Sankar has authored various publications and manuals on child
labour, microfinance and self-help groups. She was the first recipient of a
scholarship to pursue an Executive MBA from TRIUM, an alliance among
NYU Stern School of Business, London School of Economics and Political
Science and HEC School of Management, Paris.
Dr Aruna Sharma
Development Commissioner & Additional Chief
Secretary, Government of Madhya Pradesh.
Dr Aruna Sharma has held many important positions such
as Managing Director of Dairy Federation, Commissioner
and Secretary Health, Director Institutional Finance,
Director General of Doordarshan-the Public Broadcaster
of India.
Dr. Sharma holds Phd. in Development Economics from Delhi University and
has authored several publications: Resource Convergence Mantra Model
released in 2008 by UNDP, India, Impact Study- Country Paper on Food
Security of India published by Food and Agriculture Organization, Impact
Study by UNDP on imbibing of Resource Convergence in Policy making and
program formulations, Research paper on Psycho-Sociological Barriers in
Health Care, Samruddhi- Madhya Pradesh Model for financial inclusion.
She has also been a consultant to FAO, Govt of Zimbabwe, Vietnam and
Bangkok and Administrative Training Institutions.
Govind Singh
Managing Director
Utkarsh Micro Finance Private Ltd
He is MD & CEO of Utkarsh Micro Finance Private Ltd,
Varanasi headquartered MFI.
He is the former Business Head for the Micro banking at
ICICI Bank, the largest private Sector bank in India. He
has worked previously with the State Bank of Patiala, Surya Roshni group
(Financial Services), Bank International Indonesia and Axis Bank. He was a
member of the RBI’s Working Group to Review the Business Correspondent
Model. He travelled to Brazil and South Africa in 2007 as part of RBI study
team for financial Inclusion.
In August 2009, he founded Utkarsh Micro Finance Private Ltd. Currently the
company is operating in 6 states, through 122 branches, catering to more
than 260,000 members with a portfolio of more than INR 2570 Mn.
In November 2012, the company was awarded Microfinance Organization
of the year (Medium & Small) by ACCESS Development services, ACCESSASSIST&HSBC India.
Shri A K Singh
Dy General Manager
Micro Credit Innovations Department
NABARD, Head Office, Mumbai
Shri A K Singh joined NABARD as an officer in 1984. He
has been closely associated with SHG-Bank Linkage
programme since its early stages at field level and now at
policy level in HO. He has also been associated with various other functionings
of NABARD, like Institution Development, Monitoring and Evaluation of
projects / schemes for agriculture and rural development, Bank Supervision,
Rural Credit planning and monitoring etc.
He has served on the boards of three Regional Rural Banks for about
nine years. During the present stint at Head Office, he is responsible for
formulation of Policy and Strategy for expansion of SHG Bank Linkage
Programme / JLG Scheme. He has also worked as National Programme
Coordinator for implementation of “Women Empowerment and Livelihoods
Programme” in seven districts of UP and Bihar, which is supported by IFAD
and MWCD GoI, for over three years.
Frances Sinha
Director
EDA Rural Systems
Frances Sinha is co-founder of EDA Rural Systems and
EDA’s associate companies, M-CRIL and EDA Rural Arth
Vikas, based in India. A graduate from Oxford University
and the London School of Economics, UK, she has lived in
India for over 25 years. Frances has led EDA teams for research, evaluation,
impact assessment and training, and has also worked as international
consultant throughout India and in Asia and Africa. She has made significant
contribution to social performance and double bottom line management and
reporting in microfinance. Currently, she is lead consultant to the Microcredit
Summit Campaign for developing a Seal of Excellence for Poverty Outreach
and Transformation in Microfinance. NYU Stern School of Business, London
School of Economics and Political Science and HEC School of Management,
Paris.
Bonam Srinivas
Senior Vice President, Head Inclusive Banking Group
IndusInd Bank
Srinivas has about eighteen years of work experience
covering Microfinance (Retail & Wholesale), Corporate
and Project finance. He is currently responsible for
driving IndusInd Bank’s financial inclusion agenda. Before
joining IndusInd in November 2009 he worked with several organizations;
ABN AMRO Bank, IFCI Ltd, Bharat Overseas Bank Ltd, and BASIX. He holds
a Bachelor in Engineering and MBA (Finance) from Osmania University,
Hyderabad.
Girija Srinivasan
Independent Consultant
Girija Srinivasan, consults in the area of rural finance and
livelihoods. She has special interests in the community
owned institutions. After serving NABARD for 14 years,
she took up consulting and established herself as a
leading rural finance consultant, advising IFAD, GIZ, CARE,
SIDBI, Frankfurt School of Finance etc. She has been involved in the project
design, appraisal and evaluation apart from providing implementation
support to many donor funded projects in India and in several countries
abroad. She is also on Board of microfinance and technical support
institutions. She has authored several publications.
N. Srinivasan
Development finance expert, Author SOS Report
N. Srinivasan was a development banker for almost 30
years in RBI and NABARD. Since leaving the Bank, he
has been involved in several development finance and
rural development projects in India and abroad. A prolific
writer, he has authored Microfinance India SOS Reports
and has co-authored three books besides other publications. He currently
serves on the Boards of Equitas Holdings and Equitads Microfinance,
Chennai, Microfinance Transparency, USA, M-CRIL, Hand-in-Hand Trust and
ACCESS-ASSIST Trust. As an international development finance expert, he
works with IFAD, World Bank,CGAP, GIZ and other principals in India and
abroad.
SKV Srinivasan
Executive Director
Reserve Bank of India
Shri S K V Srinivasan is a graduate in Chemical
Engineering with professional qualification in finance
(PGDBM) and Banking (CAIIB). He has over three decades
of Commercial banking experience covering Corporate,
Retail and Transaction banking having lead the banks business strategies
in various geographies across India. He has served in various capacities in
branches and administrative offices across the country. In his present role
as Executive Director, he is having business responsibilities for the bank in
Retail banking, Priority Sector & Financial Inclusion.
He is a member of all senior level committees of the bank – Credit
Committees, Policy Committee, Product Committee, ALCO, Customer
Services Committee, Recovery Committee and HR Committee. He represents
bank in various forums on Microfinance and SME initiatives.
MV Subramanian
President, Rural and Inclusive Banking Department
Axis Bank
Mr MV Subramanian, 56, has been a banker for over 35
years. He is now heading the Rural and Inclusive Banking
Department of Axis Bank as a President. Under Rural
Banking portfolio, he is responsible for all types of Agri
lending including commodity finance, Warehousing finance, microfinance
and various partnerships with Corporates for tie-up loans. He had joined Axis
Bank, ten years back and had held four other assignments namely Heading
Risk Department, Relationship Department, Axis Bank Foundation and the
Business Banking Department.
As in-charge of Financial Inclusion vertical, he had worked closely with the
underprivileged sections of the society in execution of projects for rural
employment wage distribution, pension products, remittances, micro
savings and insurance products. He is also familiar with the micro lending
issues and had experience in partnering with many leading MFIs, both retail
and wholesale.
Dr. B.S.Suran
Chief General Manager
Micro Credit Innovations Department (mCID)
NABARD, Mumbai
Dr.B.S.Suran, is a PhD and a certified associate of the
Indian Institute of Bankers. Trained at the Centre for
Development Training, University of Wolverhampton,
UK, he specializes in rural development projects. He, presently, heads
the microCredit Innovations Department of NABARD at its Head Office at
Mumbai. He has professional experience in rural / agricultural finance, and
Rural Development spanning close to three decades. He has served in four
varied provinces of the country, handling area-based rural development
projects, supervision of rural financial institutions, development action
planning, organization development interventions etc. He has served on the
Boards of two Regional Rural Banks and presently on the Board of NABFINs
(a subsidiary of NABARD engaged in microFinance). He has been associated
with NABARD’s microFinance programme, since its early stages.
Ajay Tankha
Economist and Co-author SOS Report, 2013
Ajay Tankha is an economist with over 35 years of
teaching, research and consultation experience in
development economics, rural finance and microfinance.
He has been the Head of Microfinance, Action Aid UK
and Economist with the National Bank for Agriculture
and Rural Development (NABARD). He has also held faculty positions at
leading universities in India, the Netherlands and Vietnam and is the author
of several research studies and publications and co-author of Microfinance
India, State of the Sector Report 2013 (SOS).Bangkok and Administrative
Training Institutions.
Prashant Thakker
Global Business Head, Micro Finance &
Regional Head for Development Organisation for
Asia, Standard Chartered Bank
Prashant Thakker is Global Business Head, Micro Finance
and Regional Head for Development Organisation
for Asia, Standard Chartered Bank. Based in Mumbai,
he is responsible to launch and grow the bank’s MicroFinance initiative
globally in a sustainable manner. He is also responsible for the bank’s
unique Development Organisations (DO) client segment platform under the
Financial Institutions Group for South and South East Asia.
He has been with Standard Chartered Bank for the last 15 years in a variety
of roles covering Operations, Finance, Project Management, Strategy,
Governance, and Corporate and Institutional Banking.. Earlier he was with
the RPG Group for 2 years with positions in the Finance and Treasury division.
Prashant is Wharton Fellow and is an MBA from Mumbai. He is married, has
a young daughter and enjoys travelling, reading, sports, scuba diving and the
performing arts.
Mathew Titus
CEO, MicroBuild India
Vaidya is a Commerce graduate with an Advance
Management Certification from the Indian Institute of
Management Bangalore, with over 25 years of experience
in the field of financial services. He has worked for
various Banks and non-banking financial companies
(NBFCs). With domain knowledge of both Operations and Sales his expertise
lies in managing operations , setting up distribution channels , identifying
new and emerging markets and setting up business for organizations.
Prior to joining MicroBuild India, Vaidya was Chief Operating Officer at
Grameen Financial Services (Grameen Koota), a leading microfinance
institution in India.
Vaidya joined Micro Build India in September 2012 and has been instrumental
in setting up the company which is a startup and a unique wholesale debt
provider to the Micro Finance Institutions for elevating poverty housing.
Ramchandra Vaidya
Chief General Manager
Micro Credit Innovations Department (mCID)
NABARD, Mumbai
Dr.B.S.Suran, is a PhD and a certified associate of the
Indian Institute of Bankers. Trained at the Centre for
Development Training, University of Wolverhampton,
UK, he specializes in rural development projects. He, presently, heads
the microCredit Innovations Department of NABARD at its Head Office at
Mumbai. He has professional experience in rural / agricultural finance, and
Rural Development spanning close to three decades. He has served in four
varied provinces of the country, handling area-based rural development
projects, supervision of rural financial institutions, development action
planning, organization development interventions etc. He has served on the
Boards of two Regional Rural Banks and presently on the Board of NABFINs
(a subsidiary of NABARD engaged in microFinance). He has been associated
with NABARD’s microFinance programme, since its early stages.
PN.Vasudevan
Promoter and MD
Equitas
P.N. Vasudevan is the Promoter and MD of Equitas, a
new-age MFI. Vasu was previously EVP & Business Head
at Development Credit Bank, Mumbai.
Equitas is widely regarded as a professional, efficient, responsible and
transparent MFI with innovations such as centralized back-office and realtime collections monitoring. To quote CGAP, “Equitas is one example of how
good MIS is essential to well-managed microfinance”. Equitas has pioneered
responsible lending measures including voluntary cap on ROE & CEO-pay.
In 6 years, Equitas has disbursed micro-credit to over 2 million microentrepreneurs; conducted free health-camps for about 1.5 million customers,
vocation skill-training programs for about 2.95 lac people and runs 5 regular
schools providing high quality English medium education to about 2300
children from low income groups.
Sonali Niranjan Vayangankar
Vice Chairman & Managing Director
Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM)
Ms. Sonali Niranjan Vayangankar joined Indian
Administrative Services in 2000. From then on, she has
worked in various capacities- SDO (Jabalpur), CEO – ZP
Jabalpur, Director – Training, Jabalpur, CEO – Bhind
and Additional Commissioner Commercial Taxes. Presently, she is holding
the office of Vice Chairman & Managing Director in Mahila Arthik Vikas
Mahamandal (MAVIM)
A Bachelor in Civil Engineering, she is keenly interested in women issues in
rural areas, women SHGs, children malnutrition project etc.
Shri N.S.Vishwanathan
Pr. Chief General Manager
Department of Non-Banking Supervision
Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai
Shri N.S.Vishwanathan, a post-graduate in Economics,
joined the RBI in 1981 and worked in different capacities
in RBI offices. Among his important assignments are –
Regional Director, RBI, Chennai ( 2010 -2013) , Director
– Supervision, Bank of Mauritius ( 2007 -2010), Chief General Manager-InCharge of Urban Banks Department (2005 – 2007), Chief General Manager,
Vigilance and Internal Audit, Industrial Financial Corporation of India (20022004).
He was RBI Nominee Director in Punjab & Sind Bank, Dena Bank and Punjab
National Bank. He has attended many Seminars and Programmes in India
and abroad.
Vandana Vishwanathan
Partner CoCoon Consulting &
Board Member, Ujjivan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd
Vandana has worked in the areas of HR Strategy,
Organizational Effectiveness and Leadership
Development for over 19 years. She is a co-founder and
Partner at CoCoon, a design, research and consulting
firm that works in the areas of Capability Building and Organizational
Effectiveness. She has worked with MFIs, business corporations and social
sector organizations in India and other parts of the world over the last 13
years. Prior to setting up CoCoon, she worked at the Unilever Group in India
for 6.5 years.
She also worked to help incubate a not-for-profit company called Phicus two
years ago. Vandana serves on the Board of Ujjivan, which is one India’s most
successful MFIs. Vandana holds a Masters degree in Industrial Relations and
Personnel Management from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Graham A.N. Wright
Group Managing Director
MicroSave
Graham A.N. Wright founded MicroSave and is currently
its Group Managing Director. He has had a career of two
decades of development experience underpinned by
five years of experience in management consultancy,
training and audit with a leading accounting firm in Europe. He is a reformed
Chartered Accountant.
He has worked on a wide variety of projects in Bangladesh, Colombia, India,
Indonesia, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and Tanzania. Graham
has provided technical assistance to a variety of financial institutions in
Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and throughout Africa. These
involved strategic planning, market research, product development, process
analysis, agent network development and maintenance, and marketing
Sarat Yadav
Assistant General Manager, ICICI Bank Ltd
Sarat heads the SHG Bank Linkage programme of ICICI
Bank. He joined ICICI Bank in the year 2006 and has
been part of banks Rural & Inclusive Banking Group.
Have cross-functional experience in Rural Retail, Farm
Equipment, Commodity Finance, and Microfinance.
A Management Graduate from IRMA with more than 15 years’ experience in
Agri & Rural market segment, in the Banking, Insurance and Dairy industries.
Prior to joining ICICI Bank, he worked for five years with National Dairy
Development Board (NDDB) and then had a stint of three years with HDFC
Chubb General Insurance launching their Rural foray.
Vijayalakshmi Das
Chief Executive Officer at Ananya Finance for
Inclusive Growth Pvt Ltd
Vijayalakshmi Das is Chief Executive Officer at Ananya
Finance for Inclusive Growth Pvt Ltd. and Friends of
Women World Banking (FWWB). She has been associated
with the Indian microfinance sector for over two
decades. Ms. Das is also one of the founding trustees of the Indian School of
Microfinance for women, an institution set up to provide capacity building
support to microfinance institutions and to build and strengthen women’s
leadership in the financial sector. She has assumed the Chairperson’s
Position of the Board of Directors at ACCESS from April 2013.
SPONSORS
SUMMIT 2013
FOUNDING PARTNERS
CARE
Care is a leading humanitarian agency, present in over 70 countries
worldwide. In India sicne 1950, CARE partners with community, civil
society and government organisations on long term programmes that
address the needs of the most vulnerable, particularly women and
girls. We strive to ensure that everyone benefits from socio-economic
development without discrimination on the grounds of gender, race, caste or
occupation.
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation works with
visionary leaders and organizations
worldwide to change social
structures and institutions so that
all people have the opportunity to reach their full potential, contribute to society,
have a voice in decisions that affect them, and live and work in dignity. This
commitment to social justice is carried out through programs that strengthen
democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, and advance human knowledge,
creativity and achievement.
The goal of the Ford Foundation’s livelihood work is to reduce economic and
social inequality and poverty in rural and urban areas by strengthening the
capacity of poor and marginalized households to access financial, business
development, and organizational development services that have the potential
to improve productivity, sustainability and marketability of their products or
services.
Citi Foundation
The Citi Foundation is committed to the economic empowerment
and financial inclusion of individuals and families, particularly
those in need, in the communities where we work so that they can improve
their standard of living. Globally, the Citi Foundation targets its strategic giving
to priority focus areas: Microfinance, Enterprise Development, Youth Education
and Livelihoods, and Financial Capability and Asset Building. The Citi Foundation
works with its partners in Microfinance and Enterprise Development to support
environmental programs and innovations. Additional information can be found
at www.citifoundation.com
Working across Citi’s businesses, product groups and geographies, Citi
Microfinance serves 150 microfinance institutions (MFIs), networks and investors
as clients and partners in nearly 50 countries with products and services spanning
the financial spectrum – from financing, access to capital markets, transaction
services and hedging foreign exchange risk, to credit, savings, remittances and
insurance products - to expand access to financial services for the underserved.
www.citimicrofinance.com
CORE SPONSORS
HSBC
HSBC in India
HSBC is one of India’s leading banking and financial
services institutions, with around 30,000 employees in
its banking, investment banking and capital markets,
asset management, insurance broking, life insurance, software development and
global resourcing operations in the country. In 2008, the HSBC Group acquired a
majority stake in HSBC InvestDirect that has enabled it to offer retail brokerage
services to its customers across a wider geography in the country. It has also
entered into a joint venture with two of India’s leading public sector banks to
establish the Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company.
The India branches of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited
offer a full range of banking and financial services to over 1 million customers
through 50 branches and some 140 ATMs across 29 cities.
HSBC’s network of branches is located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh,
Chennai, Coimbatore, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jodhpur,
Kochi, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Mumbai, Mysore, Nagpur, Noida, New
Delhi, Nasik, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Surat, Trivandrum, Thane, Vadodara and
Visakhapatnam.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited is the founding
member of the HSBC Group, which serves around 60 million customers through
four global businesses: Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Commercial
Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Global Private Banking. The HSBC
Group’s network covers 6,900 offices in 84 countries and territories in six
geographical regions: Europe, Hong Kong, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Middle East and
North Africa, North America and Latin America. With assets of USD2,652 billion
at 30 June 2012, HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services
organisations.
HSBC and Sustainability
HSBC’s corporate sustainability strategy includes the development of sustainable
business opportunities, management of its own environmental footprint, and
its community investments. The bank has a long term commitment to the
communities in which it operates. It focuses on financial inclusion (skills building,
education, livelihood and financial literacy) and environment and climate
change programmes in India. HSBC partners with several non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) as well as other institutions across the country to ensure
that its investment is channelised into meaningful projects that create a lasting
and sustainable impact on communities.
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global
development institution focused exclusively on the private sector.
We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by
financing investment, mobilizing capital in international financial
markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and
governments. In Fiscal Year 2012, our investments reached an all-time high of
more than $20 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs,
spark innovation, and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges.
IFC in South Asia
To grow opportunities for the underserved, IFC in South Asia has concentrated
on low-income, rural, and fragile regions while building infrastructure and
assisting public-private-partnerships; facilitating renewable energy generation;
promoting cleaner production, energy and water efficiency; supporting
agriculture; creating growth opportunities for small businesses; reforming
investment climate; encouraging low-income housing; and making affordable
healthcare accessible.
Through these strategic interventions in the region, IFC aims to promote
inclusive growth, particularly in the low income states of India; help address
climate change impacts; and encourage global and regional integration including
promoting investments from South Asia into Africa. In South Asia, IFC works in
low-income and frontier regions where our work results in quick outcomes and
strong impacts. To promote inclusive growth at the base of the pyramid, we built
on previous years experiences to engage in working with the private sector in
the region to develop measures that will increase incomes for the poor and small
businesses.
Access to Finance Advisory
Within IFC, South Asia Access to Finance Advisory is committed to improving the
depth and quality of financial services to low-income people through its work in
the areas of microfinance, affordable housing finance, micro, small and medium
enterprise finance, agriculture finance, sustainable energy finance, payment
systems, and financial infrastructure such as credit bureaus/collateral registries.
IFC implements several advisory projects across India. Microfinance remains
one of our core areas of focus, and we are committed to promoting responsible
finance among microfinance institutions through our support to the Indian
Microfinance Code of Conduct and client protection. Weare supporting
microfinance institutions to expand to low income states, diversify their financial
services and increase reporting to credit bureaus to address challenges in
the sector. Access to Finance is also promoting affordable housing by helping
microfinance institutions and housing finance companies develop their low income housing portfolio.
In addition, the team is also engaged in a number of retail payment projects in
South Asia, including promoting government to persons (G2P) payments in Bihar
to improve efficiency and transparency in health payments. Within sustainable
energy finance, we are assisting financial institutions to design financial
products that promote household adoption of sustainable energy, water, and
sanitation solutions. Access to Finance remains committed to increasing finance
to micro, small and medium enterprises and agricultural sector by building
capacity of banks and non banking financial companies to lend to these sectors
and strengthen collateral registries for increased access to information on
collateralized loans.
Stay Connected
www.ifc.org.
www.ifc.org/southasia
www.facebook.com/IFCsouthasia
www.twitter.com/IFC_SouthAsia
www.facebook.com/IFCwbg
www.twitter.com/IFC_org
www.youtube.com/IFCvideocasts
www.ifc.org/SocialMediaIndex.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
UNDP partners globally with all levels of society in more than
170 countries and territories where we operate. We offer global
perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient
nations that can withstand crisis, and that drive and sustain growth
that improves the quality of life for everyone.
UNDP works in the following five thematic areas:
• Poverty Reduction: UNDP India’s Poverty Reduction Programme partners
with central, state governments and civil society organizations across the
country to improve the effectiveness of poverty reduction and livelihood
promotion programmes and build partnerships that enable disadvantaged
communities to improve skills and diversify to non-farm activities. Efforts are
also aimed at addressing the challenge of financial inclusion through a range
of financial products and services that reduce the vulnerability of the poor.
Empowering women remains a key area of intervention.
• Democratic Governance: The Democratic Governance Programme of UNDP
promotes social, economic and political inclusion of the most disadvantaged,
particularly women and girls. UNDP supports the Government of India to
ensure that accountable and responsive local government systems, locally
elected representatives, officials and communities are in place in selected
districts in UNDAF states. The aim is to promote equitable and sustainable
achievement of the MDGs and local development goals.
• Environment &Energy : UNDP is committed to promoting low carbon,
climate resilient and inclusive development. We support the Government of
India in meeting national development objectives along with commitments
under important multilateral environment agreements. Key areas of
intervention are climate change (mitigation and adaptation), sustainable
natural resource management (conserving biodiversity and addressing
land degradation) and environmentally-sound chemical management
(phasing out of ozone depleting substances and reducing persistent organic
pollutants).
• Crisis Prevention & Recovery: UNDP’s Disaster Risk Reduction
Programme supports the vision of India’s 11th Five-Year Plan to work
towards ensuring that the “most vulnerable, including women and
girls and government at all levels have enhanced abilities to prepare,
respond, adapt to and recover from sudden and slow-on-set disasters
and environmental changes.”
• HIV & Development: UNDP India supports government efforts to reduce
HIV/AIDS amongst vulnerable groups and uphold the rights of the
marginalized, including sexual minorities and people living with HIV. We
also work to address socio-economic, cultural conditions and norms that
influence the drivers of the HIV epidemic.
Standard Chartered Bank in India
Standard Chartered Bank is India’s largest international
bank with 95 branches in 38 cities, serving 60,000+
SMEs, over 2,000 key Corporate and Institutional
Relationships and approx 2 million retail customers. Key businesses comprise
Consumer Banking, including Deposits, Loans, Wealth Management, Private
Banking and SME Banking; and Wholesale Banking, which includes Cash
Transaction Banking, Treasury, Corporate Finance and Custody Services.
For more information, visit www.standardchartered.co.in
Standard Chartered – leading the way in Asia, Africa and the Middle East
Standard Chartered is a leading international banking group. It has operated
for over 150 years in some of the world’s most dynamic markets and
earns around 90 per cent of its income and profits in Asia, Africa and the
Middle East. This geographic focus and commitment to developing deep
relationships with clients and customers has driven the Bank’s growth in
recent years. Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong
stock exchanges as well as the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges in
India.
With 1,700 offices in 70 markets, the Group offers exciting and challenging
international career opportunities for 87,000 staff. It is committed to
building a sustainable business over the long term and is trusted worldwide
for upholding high standards of corporate governance, social responsibility,
environmental protection and employee diversity. Standard Chartered’s
heritage and values are expressed in its brand promise, ‘Here for good’.
For further information please visit www.standardchartered.com. Follow
Standard Chartered at www.facebook.com/standardchartered and on
Twitter @StanChart.
CO-SPONSORS
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
Nurturing Rural Prosperity
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
since its establishment in 1982 by an Act of Parliament has been
nurturing rural India, particularly the agriculture sector in the rural
hinterlands of the country.
NABARD combines the role of a supervisor and a development facilitator . The
multi – pronged strategy involves interventions in credit planning, resource
support to banks, funding rural infrastructure development, strengthening
of credit delivery system all aimed at inclusive growth. The SHG movement
conceived, researched and piloted by NABARD is considered as the fastest
growing and the largest micro-finance movement in the world. Today, more than
80 lakh SHGs, involving more than 103 million rural households are linked with
banking system. Besides promoting SHGs, NABARD has been actively engaged
in Natural Resource Management through integrated watershed development
initiatives covering over 17.80 lakh hectares. NABARD’s development efforts also
cover socially & financially excluded groups (Tribals) with 415 projects in helping
them establishment of tree based livelihood initiative covering over 3 lakh tribal
households with financial commitment of Rs.12000 million.
NABARD has been able to make a difference in the lives of people of rural
India and emerged as a reliable, transparent, innovative and financially strong
organisation working towards its mandate encapsulated in four simple works
– TAKING RURAL INDIA >> FORWARD.
Small Industries Development of India (SIDBI)
The apex financial institution for promotion, financing and
development of Small & Medium Enterprises was set up in April
1990. The business domain of SIDBI consists of Micro, Small
and Medium Enterprises, which contribute significantly to the national economy
in terms of production, employment and exports. With a view to providing
microfinance services through a network of strong and vibrant financial
intermediaries SIDBI Foundation for Micro Credit (SFMC) was set up in January
1999. The outstanding portfolio of SFMC as on March 31, 2011 aggregated to
`3050 crore with 139 assisted MFIs in its fold. A number of innovations have been
made by the Bank over the years which include the schematic innovations like
Capacity Building of MFIs and Microfinance sector, Risk Fund in underserved
States, Risk fund for two-tier / wholesaler MFIs etc. SIDBI has also pioneered the
concepts of Capacity Building Needs Assessment, Capacity Assessment Rating,
Portfolio and Systems Audit, Young Professionals Programme etc. With a view
to address the issues of concern being faced by the sector, SIDBI has undertaken
various Responsible Financing initiatives like Code of Conduct Assessments,
Client Protection Assessments, Capacity Building of MFIs, setting up of a
Lenders’ Forum etc. Further, the Bank has adopted credit plus approach to meet
all the requirements of MFIs, their borrowers and other service providers by
customizing need-based packages including / capacity building, loan, equity and
quasi-equity support.
KNOWLEDGE PARTNER
Rabobank
Rabobank Group is an international financial services provider
operating on the basis of cooperative principles.
It offers banking, asset management, leasing, insurance and real
estate services. Focus is on broad financial services provision in
the Netherlands and primarily on the food and Agri business internationally.
Rabobank Group is comprised of independent local Rabobanks plus Rabobank
Nederland, their umbrella organization, and a number of specialist subsidiaries.
In terms of Tier I capital, Rabobank Group is among the world’s 30 largest
financial institutions. Rabobank is consistently awarded a high rating by all rating
agencies.
The Rabobank Foundation was established in 1973 as an independent
foundation. The organization is funded by local member Rabobanks and
Rabobank Nederland, which donate a small percentage of their profits to the
Rabobank Foundation. The Rabobank Foundation helps underprivileged and
disadvantaged people to become economically active and independent. The
support provided by the Rabobank Foundation reflects Rabobank’s unique
history and roots and is consequently focused first and foremost on enabling
the development of small co-operatives located in rural regions. This support is
provided through donations, loans, trade financing and technical assistance. In
line with Rabobank’s own co-operative background, the Rabobank Foundation
especially focuses on establishing and promoting co-operative savings and loan
systems.
ASSOCIATE SPONSOR
Accion
Accion is a global nonprofit dedicated to building a financially
inclusive world with access to economic opportunity for all,
by giving people the financial tools they need to improve their lives. A world
pioneer in microfinance, Accion has helped build 63 microfinance institutions
in 32 countries, reaching millions of clients on four continents. The Accion U.S.
Network is the largest microfinance network in the country and, since inception,
has served hundreds of thousands of clients with loans and support. For more
information, visit us at www.accion.org.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people
lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving
people’s health with vaccines and other lifesaving tools and giving them the
chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United
States, it seeks to significantly improve education so that all young people have
the opportunity to reach their full potential. Based in Seattle, Washington, the
foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the
direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. To learn more, visit www.
gatesfoundation.org.
ICICI Bank Ltd.
ICICI Bank is India’s second largest bank, with over 50 years
of experience in financial services. We offer a wide range
of banking products and financial services to corporate
and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and its specialized
subsidiaries in the areas of investment, banking, life and non-life insurance,
venture capital and asset management. We currently operate with about 3500+
branches and 11000+ ATMs.
In addition to serving urban and metro population, we also have a strong
and special focus on proving financial solutions to rural and semi-urban India.
Towards, this we offer customised products and services in-turn fulfilling the
philosophy of ‘Inclusive Growth’.
Our ‘Rural & Inclusive Banking Group’ works with various entities or rural and
agricultural economy having backward and forward linkages with like large
companies, small agriculture enterprises and individuals as farmers, agriculture
traders, processors, and rural entrepreneurs in the entire agricultural supply
chain.
IDBI Bank
After playing a pioneering role in promoting industrial
growth in India for 40 years IDBI took on the additional
mantle of a full-fledged commercial bank in the year 2005.
In the eight years since, IDBI has recorded one of the fastest growths in the
banking industry in India. The Bank has an aggregate balance sheet size of Rs.
2,90,837 crore and total business of Rs 3,91,651 crore as on March 31, 2012. IDBI
Bank’s operations during the financial year ended March 31, 2012 resulted in a
net profit of Rs.2,032 Crore. The bank has also set up 987 branch offices and 1585
automated teller machines. But perhaps, the most rewarding articulation is its
recognition amongst the 50 Most Trusted Service Brands in India.
Agribusiness of Bank consists of a mix of retail agri lending, corporate agri
lending, and funding farmers through corporates. Bank is catering to the
financial needs of the farmers through various schemes like Crop Loan, Tractor
Loan, Dairy Loan, Poultry Loan, WHR Finance, Horticulture Loans, Gold Loans
etc. Bank has specialised branches to deliver business which are linked to Agri
Processing Centers where processing and credit administration is done. Further
Bank has engaged Business Correspondence and Business Facilitators for
direct agri lending to farmers. IDBI’s Agriculture lending as on March 31, 2012 is
Rs.14408 crores.
Bank ensures that every segment of society benefits from its financial inclusion
initiative including financial literacy awareness. Bank has taken various initiatives
for financial inclusion like Implementation of Financial Inclusion Plan in allotted
villages (119 villages in 5 states and 1 UT), Special Products under Financial
Inclusion, Rural Transformation Fellowship Programme with TATA Institute
of Social Sciences (TISS), Financial Literacy Training Programme by way of
street plays, documentary/ film shows etc. in association with NABARD/other
government agencies and done more than 150 such street plays in various
villages in Maharashtra. Bank has also formulated a special Financial Literacy
Scheme titled “IDBI Bank Vittiya Sakhsharta Yojna”. Bank extended relief to the
villages in Satara, Sangli and Solapur districts in Maharashtra, which were facing
severe drought conditions in the year 2012.
Bank has also set up “IDBI Rural Self Employment Training Institute” (RSETI) at
Satara in October 31, 2011. Main objective of the RSETI is to provide intensive
short term residential training programmes with free food and accommodation
to rural youth for taking up self employment initiatives and skill up gradation
for running their micro enterprises successfully. RSETI has conducted 8 training
programmes and trained more than 236 candidates.
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
IFAD, a specialized agency of the United Nations was established
as an International financial institution in 1977. IFAD’s mission is
to “Enable Poor Rural People to Overcome Poverty”. Working
with rural poor people, governments, bi-lateral and multi- lateral agencies,
non-governmental organizations and many other partners, IFAD focuses on
country-specific solutions, which involves increasing rural poor peoples’ access to
financial services, markets, technology, land and other natural resources. India is
one of the founding members of IFAD and has a permanent seat on its Executive
Board. India is not only a leading donor among the developing countries for IFAD
but also has the largest country programme of IFAD in the world. Working in
close partnership with the Government of India and other partner agencies, IFAD
has been funding projects for rural development, tribal development, women’s
empowerment, natural resources management and rural finance. Since 1979,
IFAD has financed 25 programmes involving highly concessional loan assistance
of approximately USD 795 million. IFAD’s strategy in India centres on improving
rural poor people’s access to economic and social resources and strengthening
people’s capacities to establish and manage their own institutions.
Moody’s Analytics
Moody’s is an essential component of global capital markets, providing credit
ratings, research, tools and analysis that contribute to transparent
and integrated financial markets. Moody’s Corporation maintains
a presence in 28 countries and is the parent of Moody’s Analytics,
which offers leading-edge software, advisory services and research for credit
and economic analysis and financial risk management. Moody’s Analytics has
introduced a Social Performance Assessment for microfinance institutions, which
provides a global scale to assess how well a microfinance institution achieves
social goals.
Oikocredit
Oikocredit is a worldwide cooperative society operates in more than 60
countries, promotes global justice by challenging people, churches
and others to share their resources through socially responsible
investments and by empowering disadvantaged people with credit.
Maanaveeya Development & Finance Private Limited is a subsidiary of Oikocredit
in India. Maanaveeya & Oikocredit being a socially oriented development
organization always give priority to the Social Performance Management.
Maanaveeya gives bulk loans to the Microfinance Institutions (MFI’s). It
also gives loans for development projects that benefit the poor. We are
committed towards responsible lending and meeting to the needs of credit for
development.
Though major portion of our portfolio is in microfinance, we focus more on the
development of integrated livelihood and Income Generation activities that
help the socio economic development of the poor. Our selection criteria of the
project partners take care of both the social as well as financial sustainability.
Social performance management (SPM) is at the heart of Maanaveeya’s work. It
means prioritizing and striving to meet clients’ needs effectively and efficiently.
Maanaveeya builds the SPM capacity of its microfinance and other partners and
supports them in helping clients to improve their lives. Key areas of SPM capacity
building include client protection, poverty alleviation and monitoring, financial
and social risk management, sector-specific projects, and staff development.
Maanaveeya is also into promoting Safe Drinking Water, Sanitation and
Renewable Energy, by creating awareness to clients and building capacities of
the implementers to implement the project successfully. The project has so far
directly benefited 80,736 clients – 34,528 for water, 35,968 for sanitation and
10,240 for energy – through nine partner organizations and made positive
impact in the lives of the people.
Maanaveeya identified Agriculture Value Chains as one of its thrust areas
and started implementing the project. Strategy for implementing the value
chains is developed to support potential value chains that are scalable,
replicable and sustainable. Maanaveeya is in the process of Identifying
potential partners and develop partners business plans to develop value
chains.
VISA
VISA is a global payments technology company that connects
consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments
in more than 200 countries and territories to fast secure and
reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world’s
most advanced processing networks – VISANet – that is capable of handling
more than 20,000 transaction messages a second with fraud protection for
consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. VISA has been in India
for about 30 years, investing in developing and expanding the electronic
payments industry and innovating to drive electronification for prosperity of
individuals, businesses and the country as a whole.
Microfinance India Group of Advisors
Y C Nanda, Chairman, ACCESS- ASSIST (Former Chairman, NABARD)
Vijayalakshmi Das, Chairperson ACCESS Development Services &
Managing Director, Ananya Finance for Inclusive Growth Pvt Ltd
ORGANISING PARTNERS
Brij Mohan, Sector Expert
ACCESS Development Services
Alok Misra, Chief Executive Officer, Micro-Credit Ratings International
Ltd. (M-CRIL )
Arindom Datta, Senior Director & Head Rural & Development Banking/
Advisory, Rabobank India
ACCESS is a not-for-profit company whose overall aim is to
promote sustainable and innovative livelihoods promotion models
to improve the economic well being of primary producers. ACCESS access
works to build inclusive value chains that enable greater accrual of
benefits for the producers. The ACCESS programmes on the ground largely
focus on enhancing productivity of small and marginal farmers. ACCESS also
provides technical support services to large poverty reduction programmes
and a few of its initiatives seek to influence, inform and support pro-poor
policy. ACCESS operates in nine states of the country.
C S Reddy, Chief Executive Officer, APMAS
ACCESS-ASSIST
Anu Gupta, Deputy Head, Private Sector, Department for International
Development (DFID)
Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Chairman & Managing Director Bandhan
Detlev Holloh, Programme Director, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur
International Zusammenarbeit, GIZ-NABARD Rural Finance Institutions
Programme
Elizabeth Larson, Asia Regional Manager, Microfinance Information
Exchange (MIX)
Hemant Kaul, Independent Consultant
Jayesh Modi, SVP, Head Inclusive Banking Unit, HSBC
Jennifer Isern, Manager, Access to Finance Advisory, South Asia,
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Malcolm Harper, Professor Emeritus, Cranfield Unversity
Maneesha Chadha, Head-Corporate Citizenship, Citi South Asia
Manoj Sharma, Managing Director – Asia, MicroSave
N Srinivasan, Senior Sector Expert
Prakash Kumar, General Manager, PSIG, Small Industries Development
Bank of India (SIDBI)
Ratnesh, Programme Analyst, United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP)
Santadarshan Sadhu, Head Policy & Inhouse Research, Centre for
Microfinance - IFMR (CMF)
Satyam Darmora, Lead Family Economic Stability, Michael & Susan Dell
Foundation (MSDF)
Vipin Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, ACCESS Development Services
ACCESS-ASSIST (ASSIST) is a specialized affiliate of ACCESS
Development Services. ASSIST took over the microfinance
portfolio at ACCESS in 2009 with a mandate to engage
stakeholders across the financial value chain in creating
responsible financial services for the poor. ASSIST focuses on sector
building activities with a three-tier strategy: 1) incubating and scaling-up
the capacities of fledgling community-based microfinance organisations;
2) catalyzing the supply side flow of capital for the poor by strengthening
institutions through advisory and technical services; and 3) supporting an
enabling environment for financial inclusion through the Microfinance India
platform.
Citi Foundation
access