The 2007 microFinance India Conference, October 9-10, 2007 will highlight the unique success of the Indian microfinance sector to successfully integrate the formal financial sector in providing financial services to the poor. The specific theme for this years conference is andquot;Formal Financial Institutions and Microfinance - The Challenges of Depth and Breadthandquot;. It will focus on past experiences of FFIs downscaling their operations for provisioning financial services to the poor, the operating environment in which these processes are rolled out, the policy regime and the enabling environment. The Conference will also look at future possibilities in terms of expanding and diversification of services and products by the formal financial sector. An attempt will be made to prepare a roadmap for investments and efforts required towards universalizing financial services. An added new feature of microfinance India Conference this year will be the Investment Fair, to be organised for the first time in India, where investors and MFIs will meet to discuss investment needs and opportunities for MFIs wishing to scale up. Investors will set up booths and MFIs will visit them their pitchbooks to introduce their institutions, their projections and funding requirements and learn about financing opportunities from the various investors. Conference Venue Hotel Ashok 50 B Chanakya puri, New Delhi- 110021 Ph 2611 0101 Session Plan Day 1 Session I State Of the Sector Report Presentation The State of the Sector Report, authored by Dr. Prabhu Ghate is the most exhaustive comprehensive document brought out by Microfinance India and captures the totality of all the developments that have taken place in the fast growing microfinance sector in India. It brings together the various dimensions of the growth, highlights key constraints, and helps to catalogue challenges that need to be addressed and lays the ground for setting a vision for the organised growth of the sector in the country. The session will be chaired by Dr Bimal Jalan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and currently a member of the Rajya Sabha. Session II Financial Inclusion India has among the most impressive financial institutional infrastructure in the world, priority sector obligations, government owned banks. However large number of poor continues to remain outside the ambit of formal banking. Even though microfiinance sector has witnessed exponential growth, large parts of the country remain highly underserved. The session will focus on issues and challenges relating to financial downscaling for effective access to financial services by the poor and take stock of new initiatives for univesalization of financial access. The key note address will be delivered by Mr Vijay Mahajan, Chairman, Basix, who was also a member of the Committee on financial inclusion. The session will be chaired by Mr Vinod Rai, Secretary, Financial Sector,Government of India. Session III Addressing outreach Role of FFIs Breakaway Sessions Session a Impact of priority sector norms on outreach This session will focus on the impact of priority sector norms on the lending policies of banks. It will analyze banks past performance and assess the impact of revised guidelines on poverty lending by banks. Mr N. Srinivasan, former Chief General Manager, NABARD will deliver the key note address. Prominent commercial banks will share their experiences. Session b Downscaling financial services through Business Correspondents The session will assess the progress on the new policy that allows business correspondent services for banks. How the policy benefits those banks, particularly the private sector banks that have small branch network will be examined. Thoughts on how the policy could be made fully operational will be shared. Mr H. R Khan, Regional Director, RBI will chair the session and experience of various banks and MFIs will be shared. Session c Role of RRBs and Cooperative Banks in poverty lending With the recent mergers of the RRBs and plans to restructure the cooperative banks, new possibilities for these institutions to play a larger role in doorstep banking will be assessed in this session. The session will be chaired by Mr Prakash Bakshi, Chief General Manager, NABARD, with key speakers from RRBs and Cooperative Banks sharing their experiences. Session d New Interest from the multinational and private sector banks In the last half a decade, the multinational banks have shown significant interest in providing microfinance services to the poor. These banks have devised exciting new models and mechanisms to reach the bottom of the pyramid clients. Some of the experiences and innovations introduced by these banks will be shared in the Session. Mr Alok Prasad, Head Strategy and Business Development, Citibank, will chair the session. Session IV Private and Social Equity in microfinance The microfinance sector in India has been attracting a lot of interest from private equity and social equity investors . What factors are attracting this interest will be examined in this session. Leading investors and investees will share their perspective on the potential for equity in Indian microfinance, and will, at the same time, also highlight the risks. The session will be moderated by Mr Vineet Rai, CEO, Aavishkar Investment Fair For the first time in India, Microfinance India in collaboration with Microfinance Information Exchange, USA will organize an Investment Fair which will bring global Investors and local investees together to discuss possible investments in second level MFIs aspiring to scale up. It is expected that about 15 investors will participate in the Investment Fair and about 60 potential investees will present their pitchbooks to seek potential interests in their organizations. Microfinance India, in collaboration with MIX, Intellicap and Grameen Foundation is helping the investees MFIs through andquot;Readiness Workshopsandquot; to prepare their Business Plans and pitch-books for the event. The Investment Fair will be organised in a specially designated Business Area to provide privacy and ease of transactions between the Investors and the Investees. Day 2 Session V 15 years of the SHG movement What next This year marks the 15 years of SHG-Bank Linkage Programme, and its time to review the progress of this mainstay homegrown microfinance movement. With an outreach of more than 3 million SHGs and cumulative loans of over Rs. 16,000 crores it is the dominant delivery model in microfinance. However, serious apprehensions remain about the quality of the groups. There is a need for capacity building to ensure quality at the group level, provide technical services for quality human resources and demand for diverse products and services. During this session, the achievements and learnings will be shared and aggregation of demand will be made by paving way forward to enhance outreach and improve quality of the services. The session will be chaired by Shri Y.C. Nanda, Ex Chairman, NABARD, will chair the session. Session VI Livelihoods Finance - Challenges and opportunities The session will debate on efficacy of microcredit as a solution to end poverty and whether the microfinance organizations should also provide livelihoods development, skills and other business development services. The session will focus on developing a strategy to address the challenges of low per capita loans through livelihood finance. The chair of the session will be Dr Nachiket Mor, Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank. Session VII Impact and social performance This session will enable participants to learn from the results of recent impact studies on various methodologies with their advantages and disadvantages, findings and learnings. The session will discuss the concept of impact and its use for improving microfinance practices. Ms Kate Mckee, Senior Advisor for Policy, Poverty and Aid Effectiveness at CGAP will chair the session. Session VIII Missing services and products Breakaway Sessions • Session a Social Security Microinsurance, pensions This breakaway session will focus on microfinance clients need for insurance, and will cover issues of potential demand, supply, cost and appropriateness of the insurance products. There will also be discussions on the need to educate the clients on insurance products available and their terms and conditions and utility. Ms. Vijaylaxmi Das, CEO, FWWB will chair the session. Session b Remittances The session will share the experiences in remittances initiatives intended for the migratory microfinance clients. Remittances can help fight poverty, while the amounts are often small, remittances put money directly into the hands of poor people. In addition, the impact of remittance services is enhanced when these are linked to other financial services such as savings, insurance and loans. Mr Sitaram Rao, Former CEO, SKS, will be moderating the session. Session c Micro-housing The session will share the experiences in micro housing initiatives intended for the microfinance clients who are homeless or are living in below standard houses and various loan products available to them. Mr Ashish Karamchandani, Partner, Monitor Group, will be moderating the session. Session d Technology The session will discuss experiences and innovations in technology in microfinance which address the issues of access, transaction costs, transparency and reliability of microfinance services. The session will help practitioners to identify technologies which will improve efficiency, accuracy, transparency and outreach. Mr Ramesh Arunachlam, Senior Consultant, Microfinance Consulting Group, will be moderating the session. Session IX Enabling Environment Addressing the Regional Skew This session will address the issues of the need for a shared long-term vision for micro-finance in the state of Rajasthan which would provide a comprehensive perspective and enable the government and other stakeholders to facilitate a systematic growth of the sector and provide all those involved with a road map to follow to achieve a common developmental agenda. Smt Vasundhara Raje, Honble Chief Minister of Rajasthan will give the key note address at the session and Dr C Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Office will chair the session. Valedictory Session The session will have discussions on conference summary, various achievements in the microfinance sector and challenges in the way forward with assigning targets for the next year which will be presented by Prof. Malcolm Harper. Sh. Jairam Ramesh, Honble Minister for Commerce, Govt of India will chair the session. Dr C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to PM will give a key note address and three conference participants will share their views about the content and structure of the conference. The concluding remarks will be given by Mr. N S Sisodia, Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance. REGISTRATION INFORMATION Your early response will ensure your confirmed participation. The Registration Form is enclosed which can be photocopied for multiple use. The last date for early bird registration fee is September, 15, 2007. Registration Fee Indian Organisations Till September, 15, 2007 Rs. 3200 September, 15 onwards Rs. 3800 RRB Chairperson Bank Branch Managers Till September, 15, 2007 Rs. 2800 September, 15 onwards Rs. 3200 International Organisations International Organisations International Organisations Till September, 15, 2007 USD 175 EUR 130 GBP 90 September, 15, 2007 onwards USD 225 EUR 170 GBP 115 Registration Fee Covers § One representative per organization. § Admission to Conference Sessions § Portfolio of the conference § Lunch and refreshments on 2 conference days § All Technical Sessions § Programme Kit Payments may be made by Demand Drafts Cheque within India favouring Access Development Services. International payments should be made only through wire transfer. You may request for wire transfer details at nishant@accessdev.org Click here to download the registration form. Please send the completed registration form to below mentioned address Microfinance India Secretariat Co ACCESS Developmenr Services 28 Hauz Khas Village, First Floor New Delhi - 110 016 For queries, please contact Mr. Nishant Tirath Ph +91 11 2651 0915 Ext - 212 Fax +91 11 2685 0821 Email microfinanceindia@accessdev.org