Manna for the masses – The demand for small loans from the country’s urban and rural poor is estimated at Rs 45,000 crore.

Why then hasn’t micro-financing taken off?

Ms Nilekani has funded, Sanghamitra, which is a micro-financial institution that’s targeted at the urban poor. If you’re still wondering what such an institution does, well it’s actually pretty simple; It offers loans to the poor at decent rates.

Rohini Charms – Inauguration of WellWoman Education Cell – Surana College

Rohini Charms – Inauguration of WellWoman Education Cell – Surana College.

Principal KE Radhakrishna felt that the perfectperson to launch the cell would be chairperson Akshara Foundiition Kohini Nilekani, being dynamic and enterprising a woman as she is about social issues.
Graciously accepting the accolades, Rohini said. “1 don’t know if I can be called a role model. I suggest you wait another 10 years to see if that cap fits me”.

Reconciling public stature with privacy is tough

Rohini Nilekani, wife of Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, is a journalist-turned-author whose debut Stillborn – a medical thriller – was the first Indian novei of its kind in its genre. An active sociai worker, Rohini now runs Akshara Foundation promoting education for underpriviieged chiidren. She aiso pians to pen another novel. Chetan Krishnaswamy finds out more about her.

A Foreign Float – Why are we delivering foreign policy initiatives through the FM’s speech?

A Foreign Float – Why are we delivering foreign policy initiatives through the FM’s speech?

The Budget is becoming a spectacle rather than a document of financial intentions i Why are we delivering foreign policy initiatives through the FM’s speech? Still, I think the moves in healthcare are to be appreciated for their general direction. As for my other area of interest; the Budget is rather silent except for a tax rebate for the education of two children. I wish education would move up the priority ladder as it is as much a key to poverty alleviation as say, micro credit.

Ghasiram Kotwal – An Inconclusive Muddle

SUDDENLY, eight years after it had first been performed, Ghasiram Kotwal was in the news again. Bombay’s theatre world watched, stunned, as a dispute that everyone thought had been settled forever, grabbed the headlines last fortnight.

Contributing to a sense of deja vu was the fact that the opposing sides in the dispute were old adversaries—the controversial Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar on the one hand and Shiv Sena leader Pramod Navalkar and the massed legions of his Prekshak Sangh, on the other.