Vikram akula biography

Vikram Akula (born 7 November 1968) is an.
Vikram Akula is an American banker and the founder of SKS Microfinance, a micro finance company and former chairperson of Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd. SKS was an organization that offered microloans and insurance to poor women in India.
Born in Hyderabad, India, Vikram Akula began working in rural development more than two decades ago, initially as a community organizer with the Deccan.

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Vikram Akula

SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd.
1998 Global Fellow

SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd.
1998 Global Fellow

bold idea

Eliminate poverty by applying global business best practices to the field of microfinance.

organization overview

SKS Microfinance, an NGO-turned-for-profit company, applies global business best practices to the field of microfinance. It was launched in 1997 because of a fundamental flaw in microfinance, namely, its inability to scale to large numbers. SKS has overcome this challenge on the basis of three innovative principles: (1) using a profit-oriented model to overcome capital constraints (2) leveraging best practices for scaling from the business world to overcome capacity constraint (3) using technology to automate processes and lower costs. Known as the Starbucks of Microfinance, SKS also standardizes and automates microfinance processes. SKS also automates microfinance through back office and field technology, creating its own automated Management Information System (MIS) that field staff with just a high school education ca

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Blogroll

Vikram Akula serves as the chairman of Vaya, a financial inclusion startup that connects women’s self-help groups to banks, in order to facilitate savings and loan services. Vaya began operating in July 2014 and already has more than 30 branches across several districts of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Odisha, and Jharkand in India. In addition, Vikram Akula has purchased a 26 percent stake in Vaya. He has invested in the company due to its focus on under-banked districts of India, as well as its use of cutting-edge technology platforms that he sees as the future of financial inclusion.

Over the course of his long career in development, Vikram Akula has earned a number of recognitions. TIME Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006, and he has received both the Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureate and the Godfrey Phillips Special Social Achievement Award. The World Economic Forum honored Vikram Akula as a Young Global Leader and Ernst & Young twice recognized him as Entrepreneur of the Year in India in the categories of Start-Up

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Micro-Meltdown: The Inside Story of the Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of the World's Most Valuable Microlender

Vikram Akula was a middle-class kid from upstate New York who decided he was going to help eliminate poverty in India. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams . . . until everything came crashing down.

Vikram Akula founded SKS with a clear mission: improve the lives of poor people in India by providing small loans. These small loans, used to start or expand businesses and generate earnings, were a proven path out of poverty for thousands around the world. But microfinance institutions were always set up as not-for-profits, so their ability to help was limited by the grants and donations they received.

Vikram wasn't the first person to bring microfinance to India, but his idea was to do it at a previously unheard-of scale, for millions rather than thousands. He would do this by making SKS Microfinance a for-profit institution, capable of raising funds and growing as fast as profits allowed. SKS flourished, distributing billions of dollars of loans and becoming