Guess the Race - Biting the hands that feed them

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

These people are despicable turning on the very people helping them. Do Singapore want more of these people here?


http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-ind...eur-1433878202

What India’s Microloan Meltdown Taught One Entrepreneur
Vikram Akula speaks about what went wrong in 2010 and what’s next

India’s SKS Microfinance Ltd. had created a new business model that in less than 15 years had reached more than 7 million poor entrepreneurs in 2010. Mainstream bankers and investors were beating on its door to fund the company and it pulled off the first stock listing for a microlender in India.

Then things went terribly wrong.

Local bureaucrats, politicians, the media and even SKS’s borrowers turned on the company and other microlenders in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, claiming that their tiny loans were leading to suicides.

The story line had flipped overnight. What was once praised as a vibrant industry that was good for the poor started getting painted as an evil business that was pressuring poor villagers into taking loans they couldn’t afford, then harassing them to repay.

When Indian politicians turned on the microfinance industry in 2010, SKS Microfinance and its founder Vikram Akula bore the brunt of the backlash. He has now had years to reflect on what went wrong. The WSJ’s Eric Bellman speaks to him about lessons learned and what’s next.


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