NIFT PG 2010 Question Paper with solutions

  West Bengal-based micro finance institution, Village Financial Services (VFS), plans to expand its operations to cover all districts of the State and parts of Jharkhand and Orissa by the next couple of years, and to reach out to 1.5 million poor households by March 2012, according to a press statement issued by the MFI. “This year we will follow a rapid expansion plan across the State and expand our footprints into Jharkhand and Orissa,” said Mr Kuldip Maity, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, VFS. The company currently has presence in 11 districts of the State and is hopeful of covering the entire State by the end of December 2010. Over one lakh poor households across these three States do not have proper access to financial services, he said and added, “To meet their financial needs they are mostly dependent on moneylenders to whom they pay a monthly interest of about 8 per cent.”
  Loan disbursal :The company, Mr Maity said, will aim to extend Rs 1000 crore loans to 1.5 million households by March 2012. VFS, which started its operations in 2005, currently has a membership base of 2.5 lakh poor households and has disbursed close to Rs 392 crore with a repayment rate of 99.82 per cent, he said. It has 51 branch offices across the State covering almost 3000 villages and slums and a staff strength of 500. “To meet our growth targets, we are looking at increasing our staff strength to 1500”, he said.
  The company follows a methodology of forming joint liability group (JLG)-a joint group effort towards self employment with people having similar socioeconomic profile and living in the same neighbourhood coming together. VFS, Mr Maity said, was looking to infuse funds by the end of this fiscal to support its growth needs.
  “We are planning to attract social investors. We will be launching new products and other services such as health insurance in the coming year,” he added.