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Meet Vikram Akula, Founder Director:
"I was overwhelmed by the poverty I saw in India and was looking for a way to catalyze rapid economic development for the poor."
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Vikram is born in India and brought up in US and founded Swayam Krishi Sangam in 1997 with a vision to serve the marginalized and eradicate poverty in India.
In Vikram's own words on why SKS NGO; "because I learnt that micro finance while gives solutions for livelihoods and enterprise expansion for the poor, Education and Ultra poverty segments need civil society interventions through application of the most community friendly products and services".
Vikram Akula is also the Founder of SKS Micro Finance Ltd., an organization that offers micro loans and insurance to poor women in impoverished areas of India. It is the biggest MFI in India and is the only listed MFI in India. It is a for profit Non Banking Finance Company incorporated in Sept 2003. It has its roots in Swayam Krishi Sangam, a not for profit Society.
Vikram holds B.A. from Tufts an M.A. from Yale, and has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the impact of micro finance He has received several awards for his work with SKS, including the Echoing Green Public Service Entrepreneur Fellowship.
Vikram worked as a management consultant with McKinsey&Company. He has over a decade of work and research experience in Micro Finance. As a Fulbright Scholar in India, he coordinated an action-research project on providing micro-credit for food security. He was also a researcher with the World Watch Institute, where he wrote articles focused on poverty and development, worked as a community organizer with the Deccan Development Society in India.
Recognitions
- Time Magazine's 100 people of the year in 2006 .
- Echoing Green Public Service Entrepreneur Fellowship
- Karmaveer Purashka r March, 2007