Bangladesh's 'micro-credit' man says India needs legislation for micro-credit
service
Bangalore, Aug 20 : Nobel Laureate and founder of Grameen Bank of Bangladesh Mohammad
Yunus has said that India needs legislative and regulatory back to provide micro credit
service to the poor.
Speaking to media here last evening, the Nobel laureate said, "Two things are
important in spreading micro-credit in India. One is legislation to create micro-credit
banks, small banks, who does this lending of micro-credit to the poorest people and then a
regulatory authority which oversees this operation."
Elaborating the need for extending micro-credit service in the healthcare sector, Yunus
accentuated the inability of poor people to access money in crucial times.
"We are trying to go into healthcare, because if you are poor it almost implies without
question that you are poor in health. So it goes together. So, we are trying to see now
that we have brought the micro-credit, the financial service, how to bring the health care
to the poor people and its possible," added Yunus.
He also pressed upon the fact that the mission of the micro-credit banks should be
service oriented and not profit making. He was here to launch micro-credit scheme for
cardiac patients.
The loan scheme of the State Bank of India (SBI) is first of its kind in which the bank
is offering loan up to 50,000 at 8.5 per cent interest for cardiac patients who are below
poverty line and their earning is less than two dollars a day.
--ANI
