The 2007 microFinance India Conference, October 9-10, 2007
rosaline
highlight the unique success of the Indian microfinance sector to
successfully integrate the formal financial sector in providing
financial services to the poor. The specific theme for this year's
conference is "Formal Financial Institutions and Microfinance - The
Challenges of Depth and Breadth". It will focus on past experiences of
FFIs downscaling their operations for provisioning financial services
to the poor, the operating environment in which these processes are
rolled out, the policy regime and the enabling environment. The
Conference will also look at future possibilities in terms of
expanding and diversification of services and products by the formal
financial sector. An attempt will be made to prepare a roadmap for
investments and efforts required towards universalizing financial
services.
An added new feature of microfinance India Conference this year will
be the 'Investment Fair', to be organised for the first time in India,
where investors and MFIs will meet to discuss investment needs and
opportunities for MFIs wishing to scale up. Investors will set up
booths and MFIs will visit them their pitchbooks to introduce their
institutions, their projections and funding requirements and learn
about financing opportunities from the various investors.
Conference Venue
Hotel Ashok
50 B Chanakya puri,
New Delhi- 110021
Ph: 2611 0101
Session Plan Day 1 Session I : State Of the Sector Report
Presentation
The State of the Sector Report, authored by Dr. Prabhu Ghate is the
most exhaustive comprehensive document brought out by Microfinance
India and captures the totality of all the developments that have
taken place in the fast growing microfinance sector in India. It
brings together the various dimensions of the growth, highlights key
constraints, and helps to catalogue challenges that need to be
addressed and lays the ground for setting a vision for the organised
growth of the sector in the country.
The session will be chaired by Dr Bimal Jalan, former Governor of the
Reserve Bank of India and currently a member of the Rajya Sabha.
Session II: Financial Inclusion India has among the most impressive
financial institutional infrastructure in the world, priority sector
obligations, government owned banks. However large number of poor
continues to remain outside the ambit of formal banking. Even though
microfiinance sector has witnessed exponential growth, large parts of
the country remain highly underserved. The session will focus on
issues and challenges relating to financial downscaling for effective
access to financial services by the poor and take stock of new
initiatives for univesalization of financial access. The key note
address will be delivered by Mr Vijay Mahajan, Chairman, Basix, who
was also a member of the Committee on financial inclusion. The session
will be chaired by Mr Vinod Rai, Secretary, Financial
Sector,Government of India.
Session III: Addressing outreach: Role of FFIs Breakaway Sessions
Session a: Impact of priority sector norms on outreach This session
will focus on the impact of priority sector norms on the lending
policies of banks. It will analyze banks' past performance and assess
the impact of revised guidelines on poverty lending by banks. Mr N.
Srinivasan, former Chief General Manager, NABARD will deliver the key
note address. Prominent commercial banks will share their experiences.
Session b: Downscaling financial services through Business
Correspondents The session will assess the progress on the new policy
that allows business correspondent services for banks. How the policy
benefits those banks, particularly the private sector banks that have
small branch network will be examined. Thoughts on how the policy
could be made fully operational will be shared. Mr H. R Khan, Regional
Director, RBI will chair the session and experience of various banks
and MFI's will be shared.
Session c: Role of RRBs and Cooperative Banks in poverty lending With
the recent mergers of the RRBs and plans to restructure the
cooperative banks, new possibilities for these institutions to play a
larger role in doorstep banking will be assessed in this session. The
session will be chaired by Mr Prakash Bakshi, Chief General Manager,
NABARD, with key speakers from RRBs and Cooperative Banks sharing
their experiences.
Session d: New Interest from the multinational and private sector
banks In the last half a decade, the multinational banks have shown
significant interest in providing microfinance services to the poor.
These banks have devised exciting new models and mechanisms to reach
the bottom of the pyramid clients. Some of the experiences and
innovations introduced by these banks will be shared in the Session.
Mr Alok Prasad, Head Strategy and Business Development, Citibank, will
chair the session.
Session IV: Private and Social Equity in microfinance The microfinance
sector in India has been attracting a lot of interest from private
equity and social equity investors . What factors are attracting this
interest will be examined in this session. Leading investors and
investees will share their perspective on the potential for equity in
Indian microfinance, and will, at the same time, also highlight the
risks. The session will be moderated by Mr Vineet Rai, CEO, Aavishkar
Investment Fair For the first time in India, Microfinance India in
collaboration with Microfinance Information Exchange, USA will
organize an Investment Fair which will bring global Investors and
local investees together to discuss possible investments in second
level MFIs aspiring to scale up. It is expected that about 15
investors will participate in the Investment Fair and about 60
potential investees will present their pitchbooks to seek potential
interests in their organizations. Microfinance India, in collaboration
with MIX, Intellicap and Grameen Foundation is helping the investees
MFIs through "Readiness Workshops" to prepare their Business Plans and
'pitch-books' for the event. The Investment Fair will be organised in
a specially designated Business Area to provide privacy and ease of
transactions between the Investors and the Investees.
Day 2 Session V: 15 years of the SHG movement: What next? This year
marks the 15 years of SHG-Bank Linkage Programme, and its time to
review the progress of this mainstay homegrown microfinance movement.
With an outreach of more than 3 million SHGs and cumulative loans of
over Rs. 16,000 crores it is the dominant delivery model in
microfinance. However, serious apprehensions remain about the quality
of the groups. There is a need for capacity building to ensure quality
at the group level, provide technical services for quality human
resources and demand for diverse products and services. During this
session, the achievements and learnings will be shared and aggregation
of demand will be made by paving way forward to enhance outreach and
improve quality of the services. The session will be chaired by Shri
Y.C. Nanda, Ex Chairman, NABARD, will chair the session.
Session VI: Livelihoods Finance - Challenges and opportunities The
session will debate on efficacy of microcredit as a solution to end
poverty and whether the microfinance organizations should also provide
livelihoods development, skills and other business development
services. The session will focus on developing a strategy to address
the challenges of low per capita loans through livelihood finance. The
chair of the session will be Dr Nachiket Mor, Deputy Managing
Director, ICICI Bank.
Session VII: Impact and social performance This session will enable
participants to learn from the results of recent impact studies on
various methodologies with their advantages and disadvantages,
findings and learnings. The session will discuss the concept of impact
and its use for improving microfinance practices. Ms Kate Mckee,
Senior Advisor for Policy, Poverty and Aid Effectiveness at (CGAP)
will chair the session.
Session VIII: Missing services and products Breakaway Sessions ·
Session a: Social Security: Microinsurance, pensions: This breakaway
session will focus on microfinance clients' need for insurance, and
will cover issues of potential demand, supply, cost and
appropriateness of the insurance products. There will also be
discussions on the need to educate the clients on insurance products
available and their terms and conditions and utility. Ms. Vijaylaxmi
Das, CEO, FWWB will chair the session.
Session b: Remittances: The session will share the experiences in
'remittances' initiatives intended for the migratory microfinance
clients. Remittances can help fight poverty, while the amounts are
often small, remittances put money directly into the hands of poor
people. In addition, the impact of remittance services is enhanced
when these are linked to other financial services such as savings,
insurance and loans. Mr Sitaram Rao, Former CEO, SKS, will be
moderating the session.
Session c: Micro-housing The session will share the experiences in
'micro housing' initiatives intended for the microfinance clients who
are homeless or are living in below standard houses and various loan
products available to them. Mr Ashish Karamchandani, Partner, Monitor
Group, will be moderating the session.
Session d: Technology The session will discuss experiences and
innovations in technology in microfinance which address the issues of
access, transaction costs, transparency and reliability of
microfinance services. The session will help practitioners to identify
technologies which will improve efficiency, accuracy, transparency and
outreach. Mr Ramesh Arunachlam, Senior Consultant, Microfinance
Consulting Group, will be moderating the session.
Session IX: Enabling Environment: Addressing the Regional Skew This
session will address the issues of the need for a shared long-term
vision for micro-finance in the state of Rajasthan which would provide
a comprehensive perspective and enable the government and other
stakeholders to facilitate a systematic growth of the sector and
provide all those involved with a road map to follow to achieve a
common developmental agenda. Smt Vasundhara Raje, Hon'ble Chief
Minister of Rajasthan will give the key note address at the session
and Dr C Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to Prime
Minister Office will chair the session.
Valedictory Session
The session will have discussions on conference summary, various
achievements in the microfinance sector and challenges in the way
forward with assigning targets for the next year which will be
presented by Prof. Malcolm Harper. Sh. Jairam Ramesh, Hon'ble Minister
for Commerce, Govt of India will chair the session. Dr C. Rangarajan,
Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to PM will give a key note address
and three conference participants will share their views about the
content and structure of the conference. The concluding remarks will
be given by Mr. N S Sisodia, Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Your early response will ensure your confirmed participation. The
Registration Form is enclosed which can be photocopied for multiple
use. The last date for early bird registration fee is September, 15,
2007.
Registration Fee:
Indian Organisations:
Till September, 15, 2007 Rs. 3200
September, 15 onwards Rs. 3800
RRB Chairperson / Bank Branch Managers:
Till September, 15, 2007 Rs. 2800
September, 15 onwards Rs. 3200
International Organisations:
International Organisations:
International Organisations:
Till September, 15, 2007 USD 175 / EUR 130 / GBP
90
September, 15, 2007 onwards USD 225 / EUR 170 / GBP 115
Registration Fee Covers:
§ One representative per organization.
§ Admission to Conference Sessions
§ Portfolio of the conference
§ Lunch and refreshments on 2 conference days
§ All Technical Sessions
§ Programme Kit
Payments may be made by Demand Drafts/ Cheque (within India) favouring
'Access Development Services'. International payments should be made
only through wire transfer. You may request for wire transfer details
at nis...@accessdev.org
Click here to download the registration form.
Please send the completed registration form to below mentioned
address:
Microfinance India Secretariat
C/o ACCESS Developmenr Services
28 Hauz Khas Village, First Floor
New Delhi - 110 016
For queries, please contact:
Mr. Nishant Tirath
Ph: +91 11 2651 0915 (Ext - 212)
Fax: +91 11 2685 0821
Email: microfin...@accessdev.org