How Rang De is different from other microfinance organizations that are existing in India today?
Smita: Rang De.org is a non profit organization and enables individuals like ourselves to become social investors by lending as little as Rs.500. As my source of capital is retail and social investors do not expect huge returns, we are able to lower the cost and reach out to people to whom even microcredit was not affordable. When rural people are used to getting loans from Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), how do you make them aware of the microfinance? Smita: We are establishing a network of grassroots organizations that we call Field Partners. These field partners help them to bring in the awareness and also help us to do proper due-diligence. The investments that you make are received by Rang De’s field partners who are responsible for identifying borrowers, disbursing loans and collecting repayments. The Field partner incurs expenses for all this and the 5% the borrower pays is just enough to manage these costs. Thus the borrower pays a cumulative interest of 8.5% on the lo
