Sunday, January 27, 2008

Grameen Bank



We all are quite familiar with the Grameen bank, a micro credit lending institution which lends micro loans to poor without any collateral. Lesser known is that it was conceptualized by a economics professor Muhammad Yunis who returned back to Bangladesh after a short stay in US. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace prize for his contributions in lifting millions from abject poverty. Most of the current micro-lending programs are derivatives of the initial concept he started. Watch this wonderful speech at Brown University he gave recently, he talks about a interesting idea called "Social Business" wherein contrary to the aid programs he says how new business models can engage poor to lift them out of poverty.

http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/buniverse/videos/view/?id=129

Its slightly lengthy in time with introductory talks, but worth the time.

Venkat Reddy

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