Please send along any other opportunities to . Jobs The Institute for Financial Management and Research is looking for a Senior Researcher to work out of their Chennai office. The research will primarily comprise of the BoP energy sector. Go here for more information, and the full job description can be accessed here. Fellowships We [...]

You daily dose of headlines: Health, Women and Mortality:The lack of inclusion of midwives within the National Rural Health Mission is highlighted as one of the main reasons for the high maternal mortality rate in India. Education: Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) continued to push the government to pass the Right to Education Bill. Public [...]

The Business Standard features an intriguing anecdotal story about salt pan workers in Gujarat who now run their own company within the industry. Twenty-seven salt pan workers joined hands and efforts to form their own private company, called Sabras. These workers hold 65 per cent stake in equity and are planning to raise it to [...]

Your daily dose of headlines: Health: Over 53% children in India under five years – that is, 67 million – live without basic healthcare facilities. This means that India alone accounts for about one-third of all children in the world aged below five who don’t have basic healthcare. [Source: Times of India] Education: There is [...]

The Hindu just published a great interview with Mr P.N. Vasudevan of Equitas Micro Finance, a start-up MFI based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Vasudevan is an interesting entrepreneur, having spent 20 years in the traditional banking industry working with Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Co Ltd and Development Credit Bank. Reading the interview, its easy to [...]

CSR: Turns out Government of India is planning to set-up a institute focused on corporate affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility. The proposed think-tank is to be called Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) [via iGovernment] Social Security: According to a report by the People’s Collective for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PCESCR), an umbrella organisation [...]

The Global Water Challenge, a competition put on by Ashoka Changemakers, is taking votes right now on their selected finalists. Titled “Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis,” voting for the projects is open until Sunday, May 11. Ashoka’s Changemakers and Global Water Challenge have partnered to open a worldwide search for ideas [...]

In a recent interview with IndiaKnowledge@Wharton, Vikram Akula of SKS Microfinance touted mobile banking (conventionally used for performing balance checks, account transactions, payments etc. via a mobile device such as a mobile phone) as the future of microfinance, but cited India’s regulatory environment as a significant limiting factor in expanding mobile banking networks (click here [...]

Your daily dose of headlines: Mobile bank: HDFC plans to unveil its pilot mobile bank branch with an ATM aimed at microfinance clients. While the term mobile bank here differs from what we envision with regard to the use of mobile phones, it is still a step in the right direction. Women’s reservations: The Congress [...]

IndiaWest Online reports that Unitus, Seattle and Bangalore based organization providing consulting support to MFIs, just received a $9 million grant from Omidyar Network. The grant is meant to support expansion of Unitus programs beyond India. The article features one of Unitus partners, MokshaYug Access (MYA). MYA recently received $2 million funding from Unitus Equity [...]