Editor’s Note: Aparna Dalal works with the Financial Access Initiative, a research consortium between New York University, Harvard, Yale, and Innovations for Poverty Action. FAI is focused on finding answers to how financial services can better meet the needs of…

Thumbs up: Obopay and Grameen Solutions partner together to provide microfinance services to clients. The initiative will be called the “Bank A Billion Initiative.”

The premise of the project is to provide access to basic financial services through

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The company has given its old black-and-white passbook a colourful facelift, using glossy paper, at once reaching out to its depositors and opening up a new revenue stream — through advertisements.

And with that simple modification, SKS Microfinance’s leader…

Ashoka Changemakers and Citi are partnering “in the search for innovative and cutting-edge methods that allow financial security to become a reality for everyone” by offering an online challenge titled “Banking on Social Change…

So yesterday the Reserve Bank of India called for banks to halt mobile banking services until it can release its operative guidelines. A significant number of Indian banks have already begun offering such services to its clients in an effort…

Here are some major headlines with regard to microfinance in India:

A new technology platform designed specifically for microinsurance providers has been launched

ICICI and others have banded together to create a rating system for MFIs

A…

In a first of its kind survey, the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) has released a study analyzing the level of financial inclusion currently in India relative to other nations. The results are unimpressive.…

In an effort to grow from its four existing branches to twelve by the end of the year, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) plans to open eight more microfinance branches across the nation. The branches would be designed around the…

The composition of the microfinance sector is becoming increasingly hybridized, as microfinance institutions (MFIs) morph into profit-making entities, and global financial institutions such as Citigroup, Inc. or HSBC Holdings become (unintended) vectors of poverty alleviation (refer to “Global…

Here is a recap of the major investment activity in India’s social venture space and also traditional investment that will directly affect the poor:

Social

• Chennai based Equitas will secure $12.5 million in funding from two

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