XLRI Holds Interactive Session with Dr. Muhammad Yunus

At the session, Dr. Yunus talked about businesses as a medium for solving problems and reducing the disparity between the various economic sections of the society. He went on to talk about the problems encountered in his crusade against loan-sharks and his commitment to serve the destitute who lacked access to basic financial services. He also highlighted the difference between helping through charity and helping through businesses which make money and ensure sustainable progress of the downtrodden sections of the society and advocated the latter. He held the current financial institutions responsible for the poverty prevalent in the world.

The banks are for rich people as it remained for the privileged class, he said adding that more than half of the world population has nothing to do with the banking. The seed of poverty prevailed in the system and we have to break it by reversing the system, he said while asking the future managers to build a road to reach the destination.

Speaking at the session, Dr. Yunus said, “I always did the just the opposite of what banks do. What banks did was for the rich. I reversed the system to make it work for the poor. The best thing that happened to me is that I never studied banking. I did things as it came and had no guarantees for the credit we gave. Luckily it worked”.

He further said, addressing the students, “Create businesses to solve problems, not to generate money. The problem is not in the paper, but in the thinking. One does not have to change the world, just one person to begin with”. He illustrated the progress that societies can make through entrepreneurship by citing various examples from different parts of the world.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus, often called “Banker to the Poor” is a world renowned social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. The Grameen Bank model of microfinance now operates in more than 100 countries worldwide. As of today, about 9 million people benefit from the financial services accorded by Grameen Bank and remarkably, 97% of the beneficiaries are women.

In 2012, he was described as one of 12 greatest entrepreneurs of the current era, and has also been named among the world’s top 100 most influential thinkers by the Foreign Policy magazine. Besides the Nobel Prize, Prof Yunus has been felicitated by numerous awards and honors including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, Ramon Magsaysay Award (1984), the World Food Prize, the International Simon Bolivar Prize (1996), the Sydney Peace Prize (1998), the Seoul Peace Prize (2006), etc.