South Asians and Microlending
Monday, June 15, 2009 11:55
Since Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, microlending has become a buzzword. And at levels large and small, South Asians have been a driving force in the spread of its popularity.
Yunnus, of course, heads the Grameen Bank in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Premal Shah is the president of Kiva, a very popular website that connects lenders with entrepreneurs around the world.
And now recently, as reported by the New York Times, Shah’s cousin Tanuj Parikh along with Nimay Mehta and Joshua Kushner, three recent Harvard University graduates, have set up a website, Unithrive.org that hooks up donors with students who need loans.
South Asians don’t have a monopoly on microlending. There is nothing intrinsic about South Asians that pushes them toward the practice. So is it a complete coincidence that there is such a strong South Asian presence in microlending? There is something bigger going on here, but I am not quite sure what it is.
Update (by SS): There is also one other prominent south asian entrepreneur that should be mentioned here. Asheesh Advani, considered by many to be one of the pioneers of peer to peer lending, founded Circle Lending in 2001. He successfully sold the company to Richard Branson and is now the President of Virgin Money USA.
