Prachi Desai and Emraan launch Big Cinemas

Banco Compartamos (Mexico's Microfinance Institution) put Mexico's microfinance industry on the map, since its initial public offering (IPO) in 2007. About two thirds of India's more than 1 billion people live in rural areas, and almost 170 million of them are poor. Rural and micro-banking is now an industry in India with each bank having a dedicated Rural, Agricultural, and Micro-banking (RMAG) division. Banks in India have begun to enter the microfinance lending market, and many are partnering with regional microfinance institutions. Forbes recently published the Forbes 50 list of Top MFIs acknowledging the industry and its impact.

Mergers and Acquisitions in the Microfinance Industry: In the news: CGAP, DFID join hands to boost mobile banking for the unbanked: GAP, Deutsche Bank, Grameen-Jameel, and IDB join 'Islamic Microfinance Challenge 2010'.Samasta a Non-Banking Finance Company, which forayed into microfinance in 2008, says it is open to Geographical Mergers. It aims to become a one-stop financial shop by offering 'solutions not products'.

Microfinance has now been seen by the United Nations as the means of achieving the Millennium Developmental Goal -2015 of alleviating extreme poverty and hunger. The producers of software, hardware and associated infrastructure can acknowledge this contribution and prepare themselves thereby contributing to a larger social cause!