Articles
Rang De on India Positve, CNN IBN's Diwali Special Story - 13 Nov 2012
A Bangalore-based micro-lending service is bringing cheer to hundreds of small-scale rural entrepreneurs this festive season... Read More
Funding the poor not a bad idea at all - 23 Apr 2012
Funding the poor not a bad idea at all. To keep this system as risk free as possible, Rang De requires all borrowers to be a part of a group, like a women's self-help group... Read More
Lending a helping hand - 8 Mar 2011
Smita and her husband Ram returned to India from the UK and pooled in their saving Rs8 lakh to start a socila enterprise that aimed to provide a sustainable solution to the poverty stricken millions in rural and semi-urban India... Read More
World Cup helps micro-credit firm Rang De mobilise social investments - 4 Apr 2011
Team India might have earned a lot of goodies after winning the World Cup in grand style after a 28-year gap. But in doing so, it has inadvertently helped a Chennai-based, non-profit micro-credit firm Rang De to mobilise social investments worth Rs 9 lakh... Read More
No Cookie Cutters Need Apply - 19 November 2010
Four years ago Smita Ram and Ramakrishna were troubled by the extremely high interest rates that microfinance companies were charging the poor. It occurred to them that peer lending and using an Internet-based model would help reduce interest rates. ... Read More
The New Colour of Money - 25 September 2010
Have you ever wondered what happens to money that's sitting in your savings account, waiting to be withdrawn and used? I imagine it sitting in little stacks inside a steel vault or an ATM machine, waiting patiently for its day in the sun. But speak to Smita Ram ... Read More
Capital with a Conscience - 4 September 2010
Chennai based book publisher Badri Seshadri is an unlikely lender. From time to time, he logs on to the peer to peer micro-lending platform Rang De, and lends sums as little as Rs. 500 to entrepreneurs in dire need of funds. He gets a 3.5% return on his efforts ... Read More
Eclectic rendition - 19 August 2010
"We will not provide a traditional fare today, it will be an eclectic mix from various saints and composers," announced Gayatri (of the Ranjani & Gayatri duo) at Rang, the Freedom Concert put together for Bangalore by Rang De recently with The Hindu as me ... Read More
Small investments usher in big change - 14 August 2010
Young investors provide working capital to women entrepreneurs in rural India through an online social lending platform. Smita Deodhar learns more about this unique empowerment model. Mitesh Tank, a young IT professional from Mumbai, was trawling on the ... Read More
Young India is investing in poor rural women's dreams - 13 August 2010
Mitesh Tank, a young IT professional from Mumbai, was trawling on the Internet one day when he happened to read about 'India's first social lending platform', Rang De. Set up in 2008, Chennai-based Rang De used the internet to interface with individual le ... Read More
Microcredit Takes Online Route - 05 July 2010
For the past 10 years, Jothi Vellagiri and her husband had been working hard as blacksmiths in Vannamada, a small town in Kerala. Jothi used to pound iron rods with a 10-kg hammer while her husband worked the furnace to make knives and swords. All this har ... Read More
Rang De: India's first online platform for micro-credit - 27 June 2010
Kanakama Redi, a vegetable vendor in Puri, Orissa used to work from 8.00 am till late in the evening. Yet, most of her earnings were lost in repayment of the loan, availed at higher credit rates, to buy vegetables. Like her, Baban who makes bamboo baskets too coul ... Read More
75 Startups You Can Bet On - 01 June 2010
Rang De is a web-based social initiative with a mission to provide cost effective microcredit to low income households in India. It enables individuals to participate in microcredit by lending as little as Rs. 100. Since January 2008, Rang De has reached out to ... Read More
Rang De Takes microlending online - May 2010
Rang De is a social initiative that provides web based microcredit to lower income households across India. A closer look at those who encourage social investing. When founders Ramakrishna N.K and Smita Ramakrishna established Rang De, a C ... Read More
Giving is cool - 27 December 2009
Former software consultant NK Ramakrishna, 35, and his social worker wife, Smita, 29, returned to chennai from the UK in 2006 with €6,000 in saving. But rather than use that money to buy a house or a luxury holiday, their plan was to help people who w ... Read More
P2P lending companies bring funds to the poor - 13 October, 2009
Bangalore: Himanshu S. is the founder and chief executive of user interface design firm Cheese Corporate Care, an enthusiastic squash player and an avid reader-all fine for your typical overachieving 29-year-old. He is also a a social investor looking for mor ... Read More
Money can make a difference - 13 October, 2009
A lot of people hesitate to donate money for a cause, more so when words like charity are attached to it. But would you lend a few lakhs to the not-too-well-off, if given a guarantee that you can withdraw the whole amount as with a bank deposit, when you want to ... Read More
Net proceeds - 2 October, 2009
An Indian NGO is lifting people out of poverty and pushing the microcredit concept forward by linking borrowers with lenders online, writes Aditi Seshadri. When Kusum Nikose's husband died a few years ago, she decided to launch a small business rather than depe ... Read More
Rang De - Share the Colours of Joy - 2 February 2009
Ever since Dr. Muhammad Yunus had won the Noble Peace Prize in the year 2006, the concept of Microcredit has proven as one of the ways to solve the problem of poverty worldwide. In the similar lines start up 'Rang De' is working to introduce Microc ... Read More
Rang De, Share the colors of joy! - 21 January, 2009
It was five years ago that Dhanalakshmi decided to set up a small general store in her area. Her thrifty ways soon fetched her enough profits to acquire a milk agency. Her life partner is also her business partner, and operates from the same location, helping her to ... Read More
Reaching out to the needy - 22 June, 2008
Pushpa of Nagpur required a loan of Rs. 5,000 to give her petty shop a facelift. She supplements her income with a coin-operated public phone booth and a tailoring business. Pushpa wants to add groceries to the store, next. Impressed with the idea of m ... Read More
