Careerscope: Banking with a difference

With over 41 per cent of India's adult population lacking access to banking, credit would mostly come from the local moneylender or the village elder, and at outrageous interest rates. But thanks to the pioneering work done by Mohammed Yunus and Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, the dispossessed became a viable business proposition.

It also simultaneously made tremendous changes to their livelihood. And micro credit as an idea, took off. So, if money interests you but you want to stretch it to its limits for the right reasons, microfinance is the place to be. It is actually banking with a difference.

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The idea at its core is simple; build a good financial corpus and lend it judiciously to a large and diverse population in small tranche. Focus on lending for revenue-generating activities only and use community-building as a tool to bring about empowerment as well as to ensure prompt loan servicing.

As the returns became attractive, professional players also got in to the game, and the field is getting increasingly competitive. At most business schools, the economics and finance curriculum include a section on microfinance.

It was while pursuing an MBA in rural management in 2007, Pooja Bharech, 24, also opted for a three-month elective course in microfinance. NGO Drishtee recruited Bharech as an assistant manager through campus placements, and a year later she has been promoted to Controller, Rural Finance.

But an interesting aspect of microfinance is that equal emphasis is placed on the social value that every rupee lent generates, as well as the economic value it generates. Thus the curriculum invariably would provide substantial inputs on team building, social problems, issues of exclusion, gender dimensions of development, etc.

The requirements vary from programme to programme.

Job prospects
"You can seek out opportunities with venture capital firms, corporate social responsibility divisions of banks and private companies," says K Sukumaran, head-Training, Indian School of Microfinance for Women, Ahmedabad. Entry-level jobs can be found in microfinance institutes, in various banks and research institutions.

It is the short-duration courses that are more in demand," says K Sukumaran. The Centre for Microfinance at IFMR, Chennai, conducts an internship programme for two-and-a-half months to three months for undergraduates and graduate students.

"Interns absorbed into the programme can choose to work on either an existing projects or developing a new project for a period of eight to 12 weeks," says Amulya Krishna Champatiray, coordinator-Courses and Workshops, CFM-IFMR. Sa-Dhan in collaboration with Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF) offers a Diploma in Microfinance, a distance learning programme.

The Institute of Finance, Banking and Insurance (IFBI), established by NIIT in association with ICICI Bank has two to three-day programmes for working professionals.

A few private colleges have also ventured into the sector by offering long-term courses. In April 2008, Sa-Dhan, an association of community development finance institutions, in collaboration with the IIBF launched a diploma course for working professionals and graduates.

According to Mathew Titus, executive director, Sa-Dhan, "The sector is growing and reaching out to more clients. So, we have launched a distance learning course which includes both soft and technical skills."

Entry-level salaries
The salary of a professional varies from organisation to organisation. According to Titus, a fresh executive can earn nearly Rs 20,000 in cities. For MBAs with a specialisation in microfinance from any prominent institutes, the salary structure may start at Rs 6.5 lakhs per year.