ANGELS OF RURAL FINANCE

By linking socially conscious investors with rural entrepreneurs long excluded from formal banking, Rang De is making credit not just inclusive, but flexible and fair too

- By SONAL KHETARPAL

On a quiet street in Kohima, 40-year-old Neilhoupeu Koza looked at the shelves of her small apparel shop and dreamed of expansion. For that, she needed Rs 1.5 lakh. Miles away, in Bihar’s Supaul district, Gita Devi, who runs a modest fish farm, was worried about something far more immediate: buying feed worth Rs 20,000. For both women, these were not just loans, they were lifelines.

Their struggles are echoed by millions across India. Despite a decade of financial inclusion drives, 86 per cent of eligible Indians still remain outside the reach of formal credit. The gap forces them towards moneylenders who charge ruinous rates of 60-100 per cent per annum, or microfinance institutions and NBFCs where rates rarely dip below 24 per cent.