The IFMR Trust is interested in finding practical solutions to challenges faced in the delivery of services across the areas in which it is involved.

The Asian Institute on Transport Development initiated a dialogue on strengthening trade and communication ties between India and Bangladesh on October 12th, 2009 at the India International Centre in Delhi.

Undertaking an exercise in learning, I had last month visited BISWA, an MFI based in Orissa, that apart from providing microcredit, is involved in a wide range of activities related to health, education, water, sanitation and livelihood enhancement programs.

The power of finance to transform the lives of the poor is not well understood.

Wealth management is synonymous with high networth individuals and when KGFS decides to call its army of frontline staff ‘wealth managers’, the tag does bring with it power and associated responsibility.

In line with its aim to plug the existing gaps in finance with respect to lending to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), IFMR Capital has started to explore ways to devise an effective and replicable lending model catering to it.

The miracle that microfinance is thought to be was subjected to a randomized evaluation in a study which was a result of a research partnership between MIT and the Centre for Microfinance at IFMR.

Finance is a tool that, when it works well, is designed to help an individual or a firm move resources smoothly across time and across different states of their lives (such as good health and ill health).

A recent mint article on mobile money throws light on what the World Bank in Africa has labelled as a “cornerstone for development” for its potential to mobilize remote rural economies.

Microcredit has spread extremely rapidly since its beginnings in the late 1970s, but whether and how much it helps the poor is the subject of intense debate. This paper reports on the first randomized evaluation of the impact of introducing microcredit in a new market. Half of 104 slums in Hyderabad, India were randomly selected for opening of an MFI branch while the remainder were not.