India's Microfinance Sector Staggers In Revolt Against Unscrupulous Practices

Beyond the Veil| India’s microfinance industry is in big trouble. Now a $5 billion industry in India, it’s experiencing a major political backlash for having lost its social mission. Experts fear that the equivalent of the US mortage and bank liquidity crisis will come to sources of capital for even the ‘good guys’ like Dr Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered the microfinance model with his Grameen Fund.

Anne heard Dr Yunus speak in a small NYC group in September 2009. He expressed grave concerns then about the ethics of the new lenders who charge interest rates as high as the market will bear and don’t monitor the women (Dr Yunus lends almost exclusively to women) in small groups of mutual support systems. Read on at The Christian Monitor.