India | Kiva

Stories tagged with India

Dec 12, 2012 India

Kiva’s Investment in Non-Traditional Loan Products By Irene Fung

By Irene Fung | KF19 | India

Water and Sanitation may not be the first issue that people associate with Kiva. Entrepreneurs scoop up most of the headlines in micro-finance, but when it comes to alleviating poverty, other less publicized loan products are equally important. In fact, Kiva is committed to increasing peoples’ access to financial services to facilitate the development of water and sanitation, a key development challenge.

India has felt this challenge acutely with 67% of the rural households lacking any access to sanitation facilities. In Odisha, India...

Nov 11, 2012 India

Chai Breaks in Odisha & Manipur (Part II) By Eileen Flannigan

By Eileen Flannigan | KF19 | India

Eileen and Irene are both fellows in India. Eileen is living in Imphal, Manipur and Irene is in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. While in conversations with one another, we have been struck by how different the cities are. We’ve compiled these observations to share with you our experiences of the rich and diverse culture of India. Eileen’s profiled in Part 2 below, while Irene is featured in Part 1.

Relax, get comfy with a cup of chai...

Nov 11, 2012 India

Chai Breaks in Odisha & Manipur (Part I) By Irene Fung

By Irene Fung | KF19 | India

Eileen and Irene are both fellows in India. Eileen is living in Imphal, Manipur and Irene is in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. While in conversations with one another, we have been struck by how different the cities are. We’ve compiled these observations to share with you our experiences of the rich and diverse culture of India. In Part I, we start with Irene in Odisha and continue with Eileen in Part 2.

Top 3 things that you always notice while roaming your neighborhood.

1. Inner City Cows. As people familiar with India...

Aug 8, 2012 India

Is Microfinance a boon or bane..? My learnings from the field By Suneetha Kanchustambham

I always wondered how far microcredit actually helped alleviate the lives of the poor especially after the SKS Microfinance crisis in Andhra Pradesh. There has been a lot of criticism that this industry was full of profit motivated rather than socially focused players. So, I always wanted to understand what would make micro finance perform stronger socially.The reason I say my fellowship was rewarding is because I had all these questions answered through my eyes and ears in the process of being Kiva’s Eyes and Ears on field.

Two weeks back I was juggling between profile...