While I was looking for projects to lend to, I realized that there where no loan requests from India. I dug a little and Kiva doesn’t even have a ‘Field Partner’ there. The second most populous country, with a significant percentage of population below the poverty line, missing was bit of a surprise to me.
So, I dug up a little more and it looks like India already has a number of local Institutions, both public and private, involved in Micro-finance. I found this link on the Global Development Research Center site. It is a collection of links, including reports on micro-finance in India, institutions, etc.
I will read a bit more and blog about this again.
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Filed under: India, kiva, micro-finance
Have you heard of Opportunity International? Check out http://www.opportunity.org
Over 13,800 loan recepients in India (over 1 million in 28 countries), all women 98.5% loan repayment rate…goal is to serve 88,000 of India’s working poor by the start of 2010
hhaber@opportunity.org
Thanks for the information. I will read about ‘Opportunity International’. It seems to be doing some good work across the globe.
At the first glance, it looks like it doesn’t let you choose the loan recipient. I find the ability to do that quite interesting as you then can relate more to the folks actually using your money.
Interesting.
I’d like to know what you find out about other online services for micro-finance in India. I thought Kiva would be partnering with field partners in India but on their website I found only one and the risk rating for that was closed! What does that mean?
Does Kiva even operate in India?
Is there an online service that’s truly devoted to this just for India?