MEET THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS, INVESTORS ARE WELCOME IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL INDIA.
----------
Looking for investors interested in Investing in India towards development of agriculture / Fisharies / infrastructure / realstate / industrial development etc.
Rajat Sen
CEO
A2Z Machines
mail to: info@a2zmachines.com
My Idea is very simple yet very powerful. One day it suddenly striked my mind, why farming cannot be done in an organized manner by private institutions. As people of high degrees(MBA's) always prefer to join service industries, i beleive there is enough scope in the much abandoned Agri. business.
Contractual Farming- Banks like CITI can form separate units to partner with local farmers and do farming, then share the reaps of harvest.
I myself have identified such farmers who are willing to take up this idea seriously in down south city "Thirunelveli in Tamil nadu, India".
The benefits would be;
1. Farming income would see dawn of new future.
2. Dependance on service sector in Indian Economy would be minimized.
3. Since banking institution is involved, advanced technological farming would result in qualitative and abundance production.
4. Conversion of agricultural lands into industrial/residential would be checked.
5. Indian backbone industry would become more stronger.
There are many more such benefits for society at large. Economic development is only possible if primary sector is strong, but now the situation is really pathetic in India, dwindling agri income is a seroius threat to Indian economy. Since farmers are finding difficult to cultivate small pieces of lands, it is possible if banking institutions could step in and associate more farmers who are willing to provide their lands for cultivation. Once more lands come under one roof, economies of scale could operate better and everybody could benefit.
If anybody finds this idea really worthy, please comment.
Well this idea is quite worthy in the sense that ,the agriculture has been losing its flavour in indian economy,thanks to improper and unbalanced attention towards the condition of our poor farmers.Lack of proper technological advancements and funds is an important factor .I am doing PH.D in Agriculture and is associated with IARI Delhi ,being an agriculturist i can feel the pressure of the losses which is leading farmers to choose other occupation as sources of income.But this overall scenario will only deteriorate the production of agriculture produce ,mainly the food grains.Once initiated the practical constraints of ur idea can be well taken care of.
Banking services for poor are becomming increasingly distant, a usual rhetoric about financial inclusion notwithstanding.
The farmers world over are is acute distress. In India they are commiting suicides with increasing number despite govt. loan waiver schemes and other packages. Basically, all these packages are cosmetic in nature and do not address the real problem.
The real problem of rural folk is perpetual loss in their profession of farming because they have no control over prices of inputs, nor over their own produce. Governments in the name of controlling inflation tend to regulate the prices of food items without adequately compensating farmers/ producers.
One of the critical input i.e. Capital is in the hands of private moneylenders who exploit the farmers till they are completely broken. Farmer has to serve the moneylender to keep flow of capital intact and in the process ends up first selling his movable assets, then land. Finally left with nothing but his own dignity and still under burden of loan he is tempted to kill himself.
This situation can be effectively tackled if banks proactively finance the rural people directly and through SHGs or farmers' joint liability groups. During my tenure as Chairman of one of the Regional Rural Banks I had successfully piloted a project called "Moneylenders Free Villages" under which we had adopted certain villages for 100% financial inclusion. The villagers borrowed from us for their reglar operations and repaid the dues of moneylenders out of increased income. The increased income was due to two reasons, first they had lower interest burden; second they had leverage to hold on to their produce till the prices improved. We could create a viable, practical competitor to the private moneylenders in the village itself.
We have excellent credit utilisation and recovery in those villages. The project has not only restored the credit supply chain, but most importantly it has restored the village dignity and paved way for community management of resources.
----------
"Helping poor to live dignity"
To help the poor live with dignity both enterprise and decent jobs are needed. It serves no purpose to replace one form of oppression with another. Also, to grow a business other forms of capital are essential. Installment lending is not necessarily the only, or best means to achieve this goal. Co equal with investment capitial is knowledge. For without the knowledge to manage effectively, capital is soon expended. The poor require intensive, indeed, "extreme" business development training, consulting, mentoring and support.
We are advocates for investment at the BoP. Running any business is difficult and full of risk. If one is poor ... the difficulties and risks are multiplied. For the nano business enterprise: an informal, cash basis business, spending hard earned cash for an intangible like "knowledge" is difficult to impossible to comprehend. There are simply too many places to put cash ( and very little cash available) Family needs transcend all else. It is the unusual business indeed that will spend money on management training.
The Business Development Services, (BDS) provided by most Micro Finance Institutions, (MFI) are either woefully inadequate or non-existent. In addition, the pressure created by the weekly installment loan model precludes a focus on growth and requires a short term business strategy. This is not conducive to long term business development.
The biggest barrier to prosperity for most nano enterprise is the lack of access to the local commercial banking system. Class and lack of hard assets create an insurmountable wall between most poor owned businesses and participation in the formal economy of any country.
MicroVenture Support, Inc, a not for profit provider of nano equity investment and accelerated business development services to the poor has devised a model it believes can transform current economic development practice. Go to www.microventuresupport.org and 1) read our Position Paper: A Transformative Model for Socially Responsible Investment." and View our automated slide presentation.... Jerry Peloquin
This is going to be a very interesting subject for a competition.
I am wondering if there are going to be any entries for projects here in the U.S. It seems like everybody is preoccupied with helping poor people in other countries and tending to their credit needs. How about the poor people that live here? Who is helping them? We know what credit card companies do and what "payday loans" companies do to people.
I found this interesting article that gives answers to some questions like: why is it so hard to do microlending in the U.S., wrote by Mark Schreiner and Jonathan Morduch:
http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpdc/0109002.html
I wanted to post a summary here but it would be too long.
There are actually some really innovative, interesting things happening in the US on this very topic. Community Development Finance is really taking off - not only to provide financial services to the poor but also to bridge the financing gap for smaller, socially minded organizations that need loans but who aren't served by Big Banks. Here are some incredible organizations, doing incredible things -- I hope to see more ideas like these come through this competition:
Shore Bank - www.sbk.com
Self Help Group - http://www.self-help.org
CityFirst Bank - http://www.cityfirstbank.com
And for housing-related finance and innovative housing solutions, check out CityFirst Enterprises -- http://www.cfenterprises.org
Hi Liv
Interesting point you have raised here. I guess poverty is much more visible in less developed countries such as India (where I come from) and hence the focus on helping the poor is on such countries.
Having said that, credit card companies and banks by and large behave the same across the world, reducing card holders and borrowers to just account numbers and claiming their pound of flesh by means fair and foul. What is needed is a worldwide movement to make banks and card companies more human and sensitive, cutting across regions and nations.
What? You guess? How many people in the US live on less than $2.00 a day? In truth, most of these countries are not developing at all and THAT is one of the problems. With all of the NGO's and charitable organizations working feverishly over the last few decades, there is more poverty now than ever! What is the answer?
Fair Market Enterprise. Not the Government controlled corrupt oligarchy of commercial practice that is the byword of almost all poverty stricken countries... but, open private enterprise, growth businesses that hire people and require services and goods to grow. The Small Business (SME) has been the backbone of our economy since the 18th Century. Why are we focused upon the so called developing world, because that is where the most abject poverty exists. No one in America supports a family on less than $2.00 a day.
Here in the USA we have a bad habit of spending money we do not yet have (consumer credit) and living in a constant state of impending doom. We do not save money and we spend money we do not have. Make sense? Well, thanks to the Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) we are now exporting our bad habits to the world and to the most vulnerable of all ... the poor.
Many MFI's charge effective interest rates that would cause an American banker to be jailed (it's called usury) Interest rates exceeding 100% are not uncommon and the loan officer for the MFI visits every week to collect. It is also important to note that some of these "poor" borrowers are in their 20th loan cycle. They have been borrowing and paying these rates for twenty years or more.
Yes, the MFI movement has move millions out of poverty. However it's time to give some serious though to the morality of such a practice. The present inflationary global economy is going to crush the poor who are always on the bottom of the pyramid. Let us pray for them.
I would say there will be entries from the US. I think we'll see entries related to areas such as affordable housing, student loans, health care, etc. which all have interesting financial products/services that are just emerging. On the flip side it may even be more interesting to see what international entries from the competition can be imported into countries like the U.S.!
In India there was a hue and cry recently when the Government of India waived US$ 15 billion in loans to small and marginal farmers, Those leading the hue and cry were the corporate sector and some economists, who chose to overlook the fact that about twice that amount was owed to the banking system by the corporate world, and much of it was in the form of wilful default.
Newspapers here often inform us of suicides by small and petty borrowers who could not repay bank loans on time and were hounded by bank recovery agents. Not one news item of such proactive action by banks has even once come in the media where large borrowers are concerned.
Dear Sir,
We are applying to invite every top &bottom industry/commerce giant participate with us to gather by mobile marketing credentials with every product/commerce to fight global poverty & stop global warming following ways
This is ours Public issue of Green IPO Antique Global incorporate( proposed )where without invest you will be come shareholder, this will happen next Generation entertainment & poverty less rural area soliciting through mobile Tech& web page application & product marketing enrich generation mannerly .
comprehensive effort to creating best mobile tech& web page application will affect by ours mobile innovation marketing by Green IT talented combination will be give to next Generation Entertainment & Rural economy growth affecting by IP web page application to soliciting for mobile banking for water, food,& insurance, TV & videos and game, in the world has suffered most from these changes value by Green IT from every corner of the world, we plays a little vital role in promoting tolerance in all areas of Green IT & human behaviour.
we are ready to participate through ours Green IT intelligences entertainment business and marketing development for Rural economy growth through yours product ratio buy/sale support we have improving ours Green IT talent utility platforms will creating AtoZ web page application &Tech systems to making every kind of yours product marketing expertise to enrich rural common masses will come out there victimization with rural economy post purchasing growth by Rural self depend individual business developments that will increase talent utility Green IT for participating to connect entire worlds information through ours mobilization web innovation &Tech will affect to yours product/commerce in every emergency alert to post lost recovering and increase yours product carbon credits and study to improving standard quality product/ commerce will generate demand &supply credentials through ours chain of circle from entire world's consuming common masses will be affect by ours expertise surrounding learning to making Green IT atmosphere following ways.
How the India and World's all nations can bridge their differences and work for Green IT together to build a better future for next generation entertainments behaviors & rural economy growth , This is a world's First major participant of INDO-Global largest IT employment by rural public mobilization oriented profitable GREEN IPO Public issue.
we are going creating mobile Tech& innovation modifying in modern manners to enrich topic on climate change & food, water banking health & wealth on windows mobile that they will inspire by Green IT to solve climate change by own local area study include. all their such having full knowledge reputation regarding Green IT credential we take this opportunities encourage views Thoughts on above task with we will a request to every industry/commerce entrepreneur convey your response on this point shaking you.
The project plan will attract IT people with rural common masses to join/invest in ours free mobile banking &self remittances life/non life insurances cover by ours barcode mobile systems project from entire world this project will necessitate to every carbon credits product marketing and publicity with every product/Commerce consuming to generate new employment opportunity to rural area corresponding by local people Advertisements works publicity works which will generate more employment opportunity in rural India &china and Africa and globally.
And most focus affecting on every nation will be high time to change foreign policy political attitude and rural eco-economy growth stop Global warming and follow Green IT
Thanking You
Yours Truly
Mr.Pradeep Gohil MD A&S Entertainment & InfoTech (P) Ltd
24, M.R.Road B/33 B.M.C.Tenements
Mumbai 400009
http://AntiqueGlobalincorporate.spaces.live.com (Nevertheless, it will emerge out as an investment through movie, TV, Radio, Mobile and video gaming hours affecting entertainments behaviors culture for children, Youngsters of 21st century giving them adequate/strength and good approach from metro to rural area enrich stop global warming and eco friendly product to the 'global 2010' and 'global 2025' for which all nations are Anxious and
One Laptop Per Child, while not the immediate solution to all of the world's education woes, shows us the way forward to long-term solutions. With the promised new computers from OLPC ($75, 2010), Pixel Qi ($75, 2010), and the Indian government ($10 goal, under $50 prototype) we can see how to get computers to a billion children for about $20 billion annually (assuming a four-year life cycle). Well within current education and aid budgets, if we can find the political will to redirect the money.
This leads us to two other problems, the infrastructure for the computers (electricity and Internet), and jobs (full-time for graduates and part-time for older students). Microfinance is essential for solving both of these problems. There is adequate technology in renewable power sources and wireless communications for even the poorest and most remote villages. Assuming a microfinance package for both, structured so that there is surplus power and connectivity to sell within the community, there should be no difficulty in paying back loans based on increases in village income, in almost precisely the some manner as Grameen Phone.
Given computers in education, together with power and bandwidth, the next cohort of middle school and high school graduates will find a much wider range of economic opportunities than their parents. There are possibilities in e-commerce, local and outsourced IT services, greatly improved agriculture, food processing, small manufacturing, and then everything that a community needs once there are enough farmers, business owners and workers who can afford them, as e-choupal demonstrates.
Earth Treasury is creating a research program and a deployment program for all of this. We can't do it by ourselves, so we are partnering with those who have pieces of the solution, or are working on new ones. Microinsurance and telemedicine for health. Adapting Playpump schoolyard merry-go-rounds from pumping water to generating electricity. Build-it-yourself WiFi and WiMax. Water purifications systems of sand and charcoal in clay pots. Much more.
Oops. I reached the word limit. Bye.
----------
Yale University
Alumnus
BA Honors Mathematics and Philosophy, 1967
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai
I find it interesting that Citi is part of this debate because here in India it is usually the mainstream banks and financial institutions which are the main hurdles to 'financial solutions for all'. It is not that new radical solutions need to be found to bring about the financial equity that we seem to be talking about, but what is needed is a change in the existing attitudes of the entire financial/lending system which invariably tilts towards the moneyed classes.
In India, media has recently been full of news of farmer suicides in parts of the country because of the crushing debt burden they faced at the hands of usurious moneylenders simply because they were denied loans by mainstream banks (in spite of agricultural loans falling under 'priority sector lending'), or were not aware that loans were available from commercial banks. Add to this the question of bribing bank officials, and the reluctance of banks to lend to people banks feel do not have the capacity to repay, as well as the questionable methods banks deploy to extract money from defaulters (wilful or otherwise), and you have a dangerous cocktail of keeping the poor out of the mainstream lending system.
Unfortunately, even microlending institutions have now begun to follow banks in using illegal methods of extracting amounts due from the poor ('Child taken hostage for loan: A microfinance company got a sweetmeat seller's eight year old daughter kidnapped after he missed three EMI payments on a Rs 14000 loan, police said...': The Telegraph, June 7, 2008).
Only if banks showed sensitivity, not just as a showpiece but as a corporate policy, we would not need such debates. In India banks do not even let people know that they are duty bound to give loans up to Rs 5,00,000 without collateral securities. Fair Practices Codes not withstanding, it is time the entire lending system sensitized itself towards the poor, and things will be different.
Dear Sunil, you bring up some very relevant topics that we hope to catalyze social innovations around in this competition. Turning some of these hurdles into levers for financial opportunity, for the more communities, is one important challenge in this initiative. Please do continue sharing some of the challenges you see in India and in the global context, as well as opportunities or examples of some innovative work in the field. And of course please visit back in mid-July when the competition launches! My thanks, Tito Llantada
Dear Tito
Thanks for your views on my earlier comment. Adding to what I have already said, ways and means for "financial solutions for all" need to come from within the existing mainstream banking/lending system which is insensitive to the needs of the poor, and by its very nature, keeps the poor away from itself. While I'll share some experiences in India later, I would like to suggest that senior bank managements should sensitize themselves to the needs of the poor, and one way of doing this would be to ensure that senior bank managers spend 48 hours in poor communities, specifically with those families to whom they have denied loans, or those who have defaulted on loans due to circumstances beyond their control. Ideally, bank managers should take their families along to stay with such poor people.
Such a 48 hour stay with those on the receiving end should be made bank policy, and any manager up for promotion should compulsarily be made to undergo such a stay. I am sure nothing will sensitize them better than this, as I have learnt while working with poor communities myself.
Regards
Sunil
Your proposed 48-hr-stay for bank managers/loan officers is a wonderful suggestion. Once implemented, it could be a solution to the entrenched problem you've described.
Any thought of organizing such a program yourself, and offering it to banks to utilize for their employees? Perhaps there's a citizen sector organization capable of designing/packaging 48-Hour-Stay to banks that decide to take such innovative leadership.
Thank you for finding my suggestion useful. I firmly believe that sensitivity comes from participation, and hence the idea of the 48-hr-stay packages for bank/loan managers. Given support, this idea can be developed into an implementable solution which will be easily replicable and scalable. Perhaps Citi could come forward if they find it worthwhile.
If the poor are on the periphery of the instituional banking/lending system, let the system go to them to understand their problems. Again, what matters is the willingness of banks and financial instituions to come forward and participate, and then perhaps we could make "Banking without Barriers" a global movement.
MEET THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS, INVESTORS ARE WELCOME IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL INDIA.
----------
Looking for investors interested in Investing in India towards development of agriculture / Fisharies / infrastructure / realstate / industrial development etc.
Rajat Sen
CEO
A2Z Machines
mail to: info@a2zmachines.com
My Idea is very simple yet very powerful. One day it suddenly striked my mind, why farming cannot be done in an organized manner by private institutions. As people of high degrees(MBA's) always prefer to join service industries, i beleive there is enough scope in the much abandoned Agri. business.
Contractual Farming- Banks like CITI can form separate units to partner with local farmers and do farming, then share the reaps of harvest.
I myself have identified such farmers who are willing to take up this idea seriously in down south city "Thirunelveli in Tamil nadu, India".
The benefits would be;
1. Farming income would see dawn of new future.
2. Dependance on service sector in Indian Economy would be minimized.
3. Since banking institution is involved, advanced technological farming would result in qualitative and abundance production.
4. Conversion of agricultural lands into industrial/residential would be checked.
5. Indian backbone industry would become more stronger.
There are many more such benefits for society at large. Economic development is only possible if primary sector is strong, but now the situation is really pathetic in India, dwindling agri income is a seroius threat to Indian economy. Since farmers are finding difficult to cultivate small pieces of lands, it is possible if banking institutions could step in and associate more farmers who are willing to provide their lands for cultivation. Once more lands come under one roof, economies of scale could operate better and everybody could benefit.
If anybody finds this idea really worthy, please comment.
Thanks
Rajesh
Hello Rajesh,
Well this idea is quite worthy in the sense that ,the agriculture has been losing its flavour in indian economy,thanks to improper and unbalanced attention towards the condition of our poor farmers.Lack of proper technological advancements and funds is an important factor .I am doing PH.D in Agriculture and is associated with IARI Delhi ,being an agriculturist i can feel the pressure of the losses which is leading farmers to choose other occupation as sources of income.But this overall scenario will only deteriorate the production of agriculture produce ,mainly the food grains.Once initiated the practical constraints of ur idea can be well taken care of.
Regards
vandana
Banking services for poor are becomming increasingly distant, a usual rhetoric about financial inclusion notwithstanding.
The farmers world over are is acute distress. In India they are commiting suicides with increasing number despite govt. loan waiver schemes and other packages. Basically, all these packages are cosmetic in nature and do not address the real problem.
The real problem of rural folk is perpetual loss in their profession of farming because they have no control over prices of inputs, nor over their own produce. Governments in the name of controlling inflation tend to regulate the prices of food items without adequately compensating farmers/ producers.
One of the critical input i.e. Capital is in the hands of private moneylenders who exploit the farmers till they are completely broken. Farmer has to serve the moneylender to keep flow of capital intact and in the process ends up first selling his movable assets, then land. Finally left with nothing but his own dignity and still under burden of loan he is tempted to kill himself.
This situation can be effectively tackled if banks proactively finance the rural people directly and through SHGs or farmers' joint liability groups. During my tenure as Chairman of one of the Regional Rural Banks I had successfully piloted a project called "Moneylenders Free Villages" under which we had adopted certain villages for 100% financial inclusion. The villagers borrowed from us for their reglar operations and repaid the dues of moneylenders out of increased income. The increased income was due to two reasons, first they had lower interest burden; second they had leverage to hold on to their produce till the prices improved. We could create a viable, practical competitor to the private moneylenders in the village itself.
We have excellent credit utilisation and recovery in those villages. The project has not only restored the credit supply chain, but most importantly it has restored the village dignity and paved way for community management of resources.
----------
"Helping poor to live dignity"
To help the poor live with dignity both enterprise and decent jobs are needed. It serves no purpose to replace one form of oppression with another. Also, to grow a business other forms of capital are essential. Installment lending is not necessarily the only, or best means to achieve this goal. Co equal with investment capitial is knowledge. For without the knowledge to manage effectively, capital is soon expended. The poor require intensive, indeed, "extreme" business development training, consulting, mentoring and support.
We are advocates for investment at the BoP. Running any business is difficult and full of risk. If one is poor ... the difficulties and risks are multiplied. For the nano business enterprise: an informal, cash basis business, spending hard earned cash for an intangible like "knowledge" is difficult to impossible to comprehend. There are simply too many places to put cash ( and very little cash available) Family needs transcend all else. It is the unusual business indeed that will spend money on management training.
The Business Development Services, (BDS) provided by most Micro Finance Institutions, (MFI) are either woefully inadequate or non-existent. In addition, the pressure created by the weekly installment loan model precludes a focus on growth and requires a short term business strategy. This is not conducive to long term business development.
The biggest barrier to prosperity for most nano enterprise is the lack of access to the local commercial banking system. Class and lack of hard assets create an insurmountable wall between most poor owned businesses and participation in the formal economy of any country.
MicroVenture Support, Inc, a not for profit provider of nano equity investment and accelerated business development services to the poor has devised a model it believes can transform current economic development practice. Go to www.microventuresupport.org and 1) read our Position Paper: A Transformative Model for Socially Responsible Investment." and View our automated slide presentation.... Jerry Peloquin
This is going to be a very interesting subject for a competition.
I am wondering if there are going to be any entries for projects here in the U.S. It seems like everybody is preoccupied with helping poor people in other countries and tending to their credit needs. How about the poor people that live here? Who is helping them? We know what credit card companies do and what "payday loans" companies do to people.
I found this interesting article that gives answers to some questions like: why is it so hard to do microlending in the U.S., wrote by Mark Schreiner and Jonathan Morduch:
http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpdc/0109002.html
I wanted to post a summary here but it would be too long.
Liv
There are actually some really innovative, interesting things happening in the US on this very topic. Community Development Finance is really taking off - not only to provide financial services to the poor but also to bridge the financing gap for smaller, socially minded organizations that need loans but who aren't served by Big Banks. Here are some incredible organizations, doing incredible things -- I hope to see more ideas like these come through this competition:
Shore Bank - www.sbk.com
Self Help Group - http://www.self-help.org
CityFirst Bank - http://www.cityfirstbank.com
And for housing-related finance and innovative housing solutions, check out CityFirst Enterprises -- http://www.cfenterprises.org
Hi Liv
Interesting point you have raised here. I guess poverty is much more visible in less developed countries such as India (where I come from) and hence the focus on helping the poor is on such countries.
Having said that, credit card companies and banks by and large behave the same across the world, reducing card holders and borrowers to just account numbers and claiming their pound of flesh by means fair and foul. What is needed is a worldwide movement to make banks and card companies more human and sensitive, cutting across regions and nations.
Regards
Sunil
What? You guess? How many people in the US live on less than $2.00 a day? In truth, most of these countries are not developing at all and THAT is one of the problems. With all of the NGO's and charitable organizations working feverishly over the last few decades, there is more poverty now than ever! What is the answer?
Fair Market Enterprise. Not the Government controlled corrupt oligarchy of commercial practice that is the byword of almost all poverty stricken countries... but, open private enterprise, growth businesses that hire people and require services and goods to grow. The Small Business (SME) has been the backbone of our economy since the 18th Century. Why are we focused upon the so called developing world, because that is where the most abject poverty exists. No one in America supports a family on less than $2.00 a day.
Here in the USA we have a bad habit of spending money we do not yet have (consumer credit) and living in a constant state of impending doom. We do not save money and we spend money we do not have. Make sense? Well, thanks to the Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) we are now exporting our bad habits to the world and to the most vulnerable of all ... the poor.
Many MFI's charge effective interest rates that would cause an American banker to be jailed (it's called usury) Interest rates exceeding 100% are not uncommon and the loan officer for the MFI visits every week to collect. It is also important to note that some of these "poor" borrowers are in their 20th loan cycle. They have been borrowing and paying these rates for twenty years or more.
Yes, the MFI movement has move millions out of poverty. However it's time to give some serious though to the morality of such a practice. The present inflationary global economy is going to crush the poor who are always on the bottom of the pyramid. Let us pray for them.
I would say there will be entries from the US. I think we'll see entries related to areas such as affordable housing, student loans, health care, etc. which all have interesting financial products/services that are just emerging. On the flip side it may even be more interesting to see what international entries from the competition can be imported into countries like the U.S.!
In India there was a hue and cry recently when the Government of India waived US$ 15 billion in loans to small and marginal farmers, Those leading the hue and cry were the corporate sector and some economists, who chose to overlook the fact that about twice that amount was owed to the banking system by the corporate world, and much of it was in the form of wilful default.
Newspapers here often inform us of suicides by small and petty borrowers who could not repay bank loans on time and were hounded by bank recovery agents. Not one news item of such proactive action by banks has even once come in the media where large borrowers are concerned.
Sunil
Dear Sir,
We are applying to invite every top &bottom industry/commerce giant participate with us to gather by mobile marketing credentials with every product/commerce to fight global poverty & stop global warming following ways
This is ours Public issue of Green IPO Antique Global incorporate( proposed )where without invest you will be come shareholder, this will happen next Generation entertainment & poverty less rural area soliciting through mobile Tech& web page application & product marketing enrich generation mannerly .
comprehensive effort to creating best mobile tech& web page application will affect by ours mobile innovation marketing by Green IT talented combination will be give to next Generation Entertainment & Rural economy growth affecting by IP web page application to soliciting for mobile banking for water, food,& insurance, TV & videos and game, in the world has suffered most from these changes value by Green IT from every corner of the world, we plays a little vital role in promoting tolerance in all areas of Green IT & human behaviour.
we are ready to participate through ours Green IT intelligences entertainment business and marketing development for Rural economy growth through yours product ratio buy/sale support we have improving ours Green IT talent utility platforms will creating AtoZ web page application &Tech systems to making every kind of yours product marketing expertise to enrich rural common masses will come out there victimization with rural economy post purchasing growth by Rural self depend individual business developments that will increase talent utility Green IT for participating to connect entire worlds information through ours mobilization web innovation &Tech will affect to yours product/commerce in every emergency alert to post lost recovering and increase yours product carbon credits and study to improving standard quality product/ commerce will generate demand &supply credentials through ours chain of circle from entire world's consuming common masses will be affect by ours expertise surrounding learning to making Green IT atmosphere following ways.
How the India and World's all nations can bridge their differences and work for Green IT together to build a better future for next generation entertainments behaviors & rural economy growth , This is a world's First major participant of INDO-Global largest IT employment by rural public mobilization oriented profitable GREEN IPO Public issue.
we are going creating mobile Tech& innovation modifying in modern manners to enrich topic on climate change & food, water banking health & wealth on windows mobile that they will inspire by Green IT to solve climate change by own local area study include. all their such having full knowledge reputation regarding Green IT credential we take this opportunities encourage views Thoughts on above task with we will a request to every industry/commerce entrepreneur convey your response on this point shaking you.
The project plan will attract IT people with rural common masses to join/invest in ours free mobile banking &self remittances life/non life insurances cover by ours barcode mobile systems project from entire world this project will necessitate to every carbon credits product marketing and publicity with every product/Commerce consuming to generate new employment opportunity to rural area corresponding by local people Advertisements works publicity works which will generate more employment opportunity in rural India &china and Africa and globally.
And most focus affecting on every nation will be high time to change foreign policy political attitude and rural eco-economy growth stop Global warming and follow Green IT
Thanking You
Yours Truly
Mr.Pradeep Gohil MD A&S Entertainment & InfoTech (P) Ltd
24, M.R.Road B/33 B.M.C.Tenements
Mumbai 400009
http://AntiqueGlobalincorporate.spaces.live.com (Nevertheless, it will emerge out as an investment through movie, TV, Radio, Mobile and video gaming hours affecting entertainments behaviors culture for children, Youngsters of 21st century giving them adequate/strength and good approach from metro to rural area enrich stop global warming and eco friendly product to the 'global 2010' and 'global 2025' for which all nations are Anxious and
One Laptop Per Child, while not the immediate solution to all of the world's education woes, shows us the way forward to long-term solutions. With the promised new computers from OLPC ($75, 2010), Pixel Qi ($75, 2010), and the Indian government ($10 goal, under $50 prototype) we can see how to get computers to a billion children for about $20 billion annually (assuming a four-year life cycle). Well within current education and aid budgets, if we can find the political will to redirect the money.
This leads us to two other problems, the infrastructure for the computers (electricity and Internet), and jobs (full-time for graduates and part-time for older students). Microfinance is essential for solving both of these problems. There is adequate technology in renewable power sources and wireless communications for even the poorest and most remote villages. Assuming a microfinance package for both, structured so that there is surplus power and connectivity to sell within the community, there should be no difficulty in paying back loans based on increases in village income, in almost precisely the some manner as Grameen Phone.
Given computers in education, together with power and bandwidth, the next cohort of middle school and high school graduates will find a much wider range of economic opportunities than their parents. There are possibilities in e-commerce, local and outsourced IT services, greatly improved agriculture, food processing, small manufacturing, and then everything that a community needs once there are enough farmers, business owners and workers who can afford them, as e-choupal demonstrates.
Earth Treasury is creating a research program and a deployment program for all of this. We can't do it by ourselves, so we are partnering with those who have pieces of the solution, or are working on new ones. Microinsurance and telemedicine for health. Adapting Playpump schoolyard merry-go-rounds from pumping water to generating electricity. Build-it-yourself WiFi and WiMax. Water purifications systems of sand and charcoal in clay pots. Much more.
Oops. I reached the word limit. Bye.
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Yale University
Alumnus
BA Honors Mathematics and Philosophy, 1967
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai
I find it interesting that Citi is part of this debate because here in India it is usually the mainstream banks and financial institutions which are the main hurdles to 'financial solutions for all'. It is not that new radical solutions need to be found to bring about the financial equity that we seem to be talking about, but what is needed is a change in the existing attitudes of the entire financial/lending system which invariably tilts towards the moneyed classes.
In India, media has recently been full of news of farmer suicides in parts of the country because of the crushing debt burden they faced at the hands of usurious moneylenders simply because they were denied loans by mainstream banks (in spite of agricultural loans falling under 'priority sector lending'), or were not aware that loans were available from commercial banks. Add to this the question of bribing bank officials, and the reluctance of banks to lend to people banks feel do not have the capacity to repay, as well as the questionable methods banks deploy to extract money from defaulters (wilful or otherwise), and you have a dangerous cocktail of keeping the poor out of the mainstream lending system.
Unfortunately, even microlending institutions have now begun to follow banks in using illegal methods of extracting amounts due from the poor ('Child taken hostage for loan: A microfinance company got a sweetmeat seller's eight year old daughter kidnapped after he missed three EMI payments on a Rs 14000 loan, police said...': The Telegraph, June 7, 2008).
Only if banks showed sensitivity, not just as a showpiece but as a corporate policy, we would not need such debates. In India banks do not even let people know that they are duty bound to give loans up to Rs 5,00,000 without collateral securities. Fair Practices Codes not withstanding, it is time the entire lending system sensitized itself towards the poor, and things will be different.
Regards
Sunil
Dear Sunil, you bring up some very relevant topics that we hope to catalyze social innovations around in this competition. Turning some of these hurdles into levers for financial opportunity, for the more communities, is one important challenge in this initiative. Please do continue sharing some of the challenges you see in India and in the global context, as well as opportunities or examples of some innovative work in the field. And of course please visit back in mid-July when the competition launches! My thanks, Tito Llantada
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Tito Llantada
Changemakers.net
Dear Tito
Thanks for your views on my earlier comment. Adding to what I have already said, ways and means for "financial solutions for all" need to come from within the existing mainstream banking/lending system which is insensitive to the needs of the poor, and by its very nature, keeps the poor away from itself. While I'll share some experiences in India later, I would like to suggest that senior bank managements should sensitize themselves to the needs of the poor, and one way of doing this would be to ensure that senior bank managers spend 48 hours in poor communities, specifically with those families to whom they have denied loans, or those who have defaulted on loans due to circumstances beyond their control. Ideally, bank managers should take their families along to stay with such poor people.
Such a 48 hour stay with those on the receiving end should be made bank policy, and any manager up for promotion should compulsarily be made to undergo such a stay. I am sure nothing will sensitize them better than this, as I have learnt while working with poor communities myself.
Regards
Sunil
Dear Sunil,
Your proposed 48-hr-stay for bank managers/loan officers is a wonderful suggestion. Once implemented, it could be a solution to the entrenched problem you've described.
Any thought of organizing such a program yourself, and offering it to banks to utilize for their employees? Perhaps there's a citizen sector organization capable of designing/packaging 48-Hour-Stay to banks that decide to take such innovative leadership.
Thanks for the inspired suggestion!
Karin
Dear Karin
Thank you for finding my suggestion useful. I firmly believe that sensitivity comes from participation, and hence the idea of the 48-hr-stay packages for bank/loan managers. Given support, this idea can be developed into an implementable solution which will be easily replicable and scalable. Perhaps Citi could come forward if they find it worthwhile.
If the poor are on the periphery of the instituional banking/lending system, let the system go to them to understand their problems. Again, what matters is the willingness of banks and financial instituions to come forward and participate, and then perhaps we could make "Banking without Barriers" a global movement.
My regards and thank you once again.
Sunil