Vikram Akula, founder of SKS Microfinance Pvt Ltd, said that microfinance is even not the way to restrict the agriculture crisis in the Vidarbha region.

Akula laid the success story of microfinance in India. He said that the microfinance might supplement incomes for farm families.

The SKS Microfinance Pvt Ltd has 150 branches spread in every pat of the country. Now, the firm has moved to Vidarbha with its three branches, which have 1,000 borrowers in some 21 villages.

The Schwab Foundation and the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation honored Vikram Akula, India’s most successful micro-financer, as Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 in India’. They collaborated with the Confederation of Indian Industries and UNDP to choose the right person for this award.

Akula changed the older concept with his new kind of vision. He said that there has to be a regular cash flow for microfinance to succeed.

SKS, as the fastest growing microfinance institution from 1998 to 2004, has shown the 300% growth rate.

SKS has lent over 3.2 billion rupees in income-generating loans. It has benefited almost 1.5 million people. Their members have improved their economic well-being by 11% per anum.

SKS has most of its operations in Bihar and Punjab. He said about Andhra Pradesh, his native place, a recent study showed that dhobis, tailors and barbers contribute more to Andhra’s GDP than IT.

Akula was nominated among the ‘100 people who shape our world’. He showed the world as the microfinance could be an important tool to eradicate poverty.

Today, financial giants such as Citigroup Inc., ABN Amro Holding and HSBC Holdings Plc have already given millions of dollars to him to lend out.

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