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Monday, December 22, 2008 5:09 PM

The Problem With Microfinance

I would not describe myself as a registered microfinance sceptic, but there is one question that has troubled me all along: why is it that Bangladesh is so desperately poor when it has some of the world's best and most successful microfinance lenders...
Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha | 11 comment(s)
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Thursday, September 11, 2008 6:11 PM

How To Give Money To An NGO

Okay, I have done by bi-annual duty and written out a cheque to an NGO. This particular NGO tries to help poor children and offers a menu of programmes that a donor can partially fund. My wife and I usually ask the NGO to use our money to give girls an...
Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha | 17 comment(s)
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Tuesday, September 09, 2008 1:18 PM

Singur Is Not The First Such Battle For The Tatas

The agitation by the farmers of Singur is not the first that the Tatas have faced. As a young boy growing up in a middle-class neighbourhood in Mumbai, it was but natural for me to hear about Senapati Bapat and his battle against the construction of a...
Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha | 7 comment(s)
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Wednesday, September 03, 2008 5:10 PM

Actor Ben Affleck Understands Free Trade

I loved the way actor Ben Affleck explains how trade and technology can help the world's poor: “these people know how to fish; they need a pond to fish in.” The pond is obviously the US. Affleck was part of a discussion organized at Denver during...
Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha | with no comments
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Tuesday, September 02, 2008 3:56 PM

Tooth Decay And Other Important Things

An average 12-year old in India has 3.94 decayed, missing or filled teeth. That's according to this wonderful chart from Gapminder World. (Hat Tip: Chris Blattman ) Here is data for some other countries. China: 1.03 Pakistan: 1.38 Saudi Arabia: 5...
Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha | 1 comment(s)
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Sunday, August 31, 2008 9:43 AM

Data Point: Singur

Tata Motors will be investing Rs 1,500 crore in the 997 acres at Singur. That's approximately Rs 1.5 crore an acre. That's not much. The Times Of India says in a front-page report on Saturday that the total number of disputed acres across the...
Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha | 2 comment(s)
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Tuesday, August 19, 2008 1:27 PM

Give Them Cake ... Sorry, Cash

Mexico has run a social security programme whose success has attracted worldwide attention. The system is called "conditional cash transfers" --- the government transfers cash to poor households who meet certain very simple obligations, such...
Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha | with no comments
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008 4:18 PM

Microfinance: merchants and crusaders

The business of lending to the poor has become, well, a business. And the pioneer of microfinance does not like it one little bit. Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus has recently slammed those who are walking in his footsteps, but only to make a fat...
Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha | 2 comment(s)
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