Manipur Bir Tikendrajit House in total disarray
NEW DELHI, May 19 : A rudderless ship, that is what Manipur Bir Tikendraji House at Chanakyapuri, South Delhi has been reduced to with the staff running around trying to keep the House in order. When The Sangai Express visited the State house, there .....
Incentives for Everesters
IMPHAL, May 19: The State Government will consider incentives that may be given to the five Manipuri mountaineers who have successfully scaled the world’s highest peak Mt Everest, informed the Chief Minister while talking with The Sangai Express. The.....
Governor, CM, Dy CM congratulate So far, six from State have scaled Everest
IMPHAL, May 19: Governor Gurbachan Jagat, Chief Minister O Ibobi and Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam have congratulated the team of the 1st North East Mt Everest Expedition 2013 on summiting the highest peak of the world. Gurbachan Jagat said that the.....
Cleanliness drive at Ima Keithel
IMPHAL, May 18: With an objective to keep Ima Keithel neat and clean, Blooming Manipur, Kangla (Facebook Group), Manipur Times, Manipur Photography Club, European Manipuri Asso-ciation (EMA) and Manipur Cycle Club jointly organised a cleanliness drive at .....
KNF celebrates raising day
IMPHAL, May 19: The Kuki National Front (KNF) celebrated its 26th raising day at Camp Ebenezer, Sadar Hills yesterday with more than 200 cadres and leaders. The raising day celebration started with a mass fasting prayer. Addressing the gathering KNF p.....
AIDS Candle Light Memorial Day Observed Solemnly NGOs urge for amended AIDS policy
IMPHAL, May 19 : While observing the International AIDS Candle Light Memorial Day at JN Dance Academy today, 16 NGOs have urged the authorities to implement an amended Manipur State AIDS policy within three months. Generally, International AIDS Candle.....
Rongali Bihu
IMPHAL, May 19:The Asom Samaj Manipur hosted Rongali Bihu celebration at Devalaya Mandir, Kalibari (Thangal bazar) today with Education Minister M Okendro Singh gracing the celebration as the chief guest. While Okendro conveyed warm wishes to the Assam.....
To check frauds and money swindling Economic offence wing set up
IMPHAL, May 19: With the primary objective of checking the practice of swindling money from the public by non-banking financial companies (NBFC), an Economic Offence Wing has been set up in Manipur Police Department. The Economic Offence Wing was set .....
Guardians' body takes up street vendors' cause
IMPHAL, May 19: Noting that upper floors of the three market complexes at Khwairamband keithel are yet to be occupied, All Manipur Students' Guardians' Organisation has proposed that the Government of Manipur provide trading slots to women street vendors .....
DU admissions
IMPHAL, May 18 : Delhi University has announced the dates for undergraduate admissions for the academic session 2013-2014. It will commence on June 5 and continue till June 19, said a press release issued by Naga Students’ Union, Delhi. Unlike las.....
Ex-rebels are not untouchables : Dy CM
IMPHAL, May 19: Stating that the State Government has initiated several measures to bring insurgents on the path of peace, Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam has called upon all the people not to view or treat former rebels who have laid down arms and retu.....
UG cadres surrender
IMPHAL, May 19: Security forces of Red Shield Division recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition buried under ground in 2007 by a cadre of UPPK at the foothills of Thangjing ridge, said a PIB (DW) release that identified the UG cadre as SS Capt Moiran.....
ZU concerned
IMPHAL, May 19:Zeliangrong Union (Assam, Manipur, Nagaland) has expressed concern over the death of an NSCN (IM) cadre in a reported gunfight with ZUF cadres yesterday. In a press release, ZU (AMN) said that it has always been working for maintaining p.....
Tousem body
IMPHAL, May 19:Development Committee Tousem Block 52-Tamei AC has drawn the attention of Chief Minister O Ibobi regarding bad road conditions of the Sub-Division. In a press release, the committee said that the Chief Minister had promised during his vi.....
Hurt in mishap
IMPHAL, May 19:Three youngsters, who were riding a brand new Yamaha FZ motorcycle, met with an accident in front of Mantripukhri headquarters of 69 Bn CRPF this evening. According to an informed source, the biker trio hit the road median and rolled sev.....
MLA inspects
IMPHAL, May 19:Ahead of the monsoon season, Yaiskul AC MLA E Chand today conducted a field inspection of the vulnerable sections of Imphal river bank within Yaiskul Assembly segment together with IFC officials. Observing that many excavations dug up fo.....
Hate the person who breaks traffic rules
If you think no one is watching then you are mistaken! But unfortunately, I am not a traffic cop who will jump in front and enforce you fine for breaking the traffic rule. It is the general Indian nature of carelessness and interpretation of pampered free.....
Traditional healing methods with special reference to Manipur
By Dr K Paochunbou Every ethnic community in Manipur has well-established knowledge, skills, beliefs and practices relating to promotion of positive health and avoidance of sickness even before the hospital oriented system of medicine. In an old civiliza.....
Mis-selling Insurance
By Dipankar Jakharia Not a single week goes by when I am not asked by my readers about an ULIP policy they have invested and now feels as if they have been ripped-off by it. I have written many a times before and ready to write many a time in future abou.....
World Migratory Bird Day 2013
Large scale climatic changes, as have been experienced in the past, are expected to have an effect on the timing of migration. Studies have shown a variety of effects including timing changes in migration, breeding as well as population variations due to .....
General Articles
By : Sangai Articles
Microfinance for microenterprise —Growing need for intervention—
By L Churchil
This composition makes a theoretical examination of three specific areas of action for micro entrepreneurship; need for intervention for improving the overall economic environment, reconciling the goal of financial self-sustainability with the goal of outreach to the self-employed poor, and encouraging experimentation with organizations and services as well as general impediments to growth of microenterprise.
The structure of the microenterprise sector may result less from free competition than from misguided macroeconomic policy, excessive regulation, or absent ancillary markets. The economic environment may favour an unnaturally large microenterprise sector, killing off opportunities outside it while stunting growth within it. Donors, of different types and levels, may have a comparative advantage in intervening to instil a long-term vision against distortions harmful to microenterprise.
Donors may also have a comparative advantage in building incentive structures that encourage financial institutions to strive for self-sustainability and to provide the types of services demanded by microenterprises. The most appropriate way for donors to build institutional strength for both self-sustainability and outreach to the poor is technical assistance.
Finally, donors can assist in replicating the few self-sustainable financial institutions that have successfully served large numbers of microenterprises. Donors can also enlarge the pool from which healthy institutions may emerge. Donors have a unique role to play in encouraging experimentation, in providing funds, in evaluating progress, and in disseminating results. Without donors, learning to balance profitability with depth of outreach would require a longer, more costly process of trial-and-error. With donors, financial institutions learn not only from their own mistakes but also from the mistakes of others. Donors can encourage the speedy discovery of mistakes, and thus also successes, by promoting many innovative experiments.
One current definition of microenterprise encompasses firms with 10 workers or less. A more complex definition looks at three aspects: the type of activity, the number of workers, and the level of output. In this usage, manufacturing firms employing four or fewer workers and using less than Rs 30,000 in capital are microenterprises, but firms in trade may employ as many as nine workers and still qualify as microenterprises.
The distinguishing characteristic of microenterprises is their use of financial services on a size and scale unavailable from the modern, private financial sector. References to number of employees, level of output, or type of activity are only complementary means of identification. Microenterprises are firms owned by the self-employed poor that use microfinance. Supporting the sustainable development of microenterprises through financial markets requires self-sustainable financial institutions. Self-sustainability refers to the long-term ability to meet goals.
The financial institutions whose products are found useful by microenterprises may be small or large, of local or of foreign origin, or funded locally or by external development agencies. Usually, these institutions are not banks, but rather:
• Non-government organizations, often with a mandate to relieve poverty;
• Credit unions or cooperatives, often with a small scale of operations;
• Informal institutions, often a source of financial services for microenterprises.
The current size and importance of microenterprise is due in large part to the legacy of misguided policies. Of course, the current policy environment also affects microenterprise projects. In most developing countries including India, development policy has been characterized by:
• Unbalanced regional growth and a marked urban bias in access to public services;
• Unbalanced distribution of population with increasing rural-to-urban migration;
• Unbalanced policy focus on macroeconomics.
The principal problems following from the world recession of the 1980s were uncontrolled inflation, fiscal deficits, macroeconomic imbalances, and balance-of-payments crises. Most countries, in urgent need of alternate policies, opted for structural adjustment. This implied liberalizing prices, reducing the fiscal deficit, reorienting spending toward non-tradables, and reducing subsidies for non-self-sustainable financial programs.
The net effect of structural adjustment on access to finance for microenterprise was negative. On the one hand, restructuring the economy destroyed financial markets and, while many markets became more competitive, financial markets lagged behind. On the other hand, financial liberalization reduced the size of the loan market, especially for microenterprise, and this has turned out to be major impediment for growth microenterprises across all developing countries including India though its degree may vary from one country to another and from region to region
