Monthly status as on December  2011

  • States - 5
  • Districts - 23
  • Branches - 217
  • Municipalities - 795
  • Villages - 2,533
  • Beneficiaries - 3,95,760
  • Staff - 432

Awards

Over a short span of 9 years of operation, Bandhan has received various accolades for the efforts it is taking towards women empowerment and poverty alleviation.

These awards are not just mere awards but more of a motivation for the entire team to march ahead towards achieving its mission and vision.

Bandhan takes this opportunity to thank all those who have been associated with Bandhan and have supported our endeavors in whatever way possible. Thank you for all that you do!

We promise to keep up to the expectations of all and keep our performance flag flying high.

Thank you again for encouraging us and appreciating our work.


1. Skoch Financial Inclusion Award(2012)

Bandhan netted Skoch Financial Inclusion Award 2012 for its intervention in the promotion of education for children hailing from underprivileged households. The award was presented to Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Founder & Mentor, Bandhan on January 05, 2012 in New Delhi as a fitting culmination to the Financial Inclusion Day.

'Bandhan Education Program' was adjudged the best initiative in the category of 'Education' by virtue of which Bandhan won the coveted award.

Bandhan was also given a certificate of merit for its education initiative. The program has been rated amongst top 50 financial inclusion projects in India during 2011 in an assessment across government, corporates, financial and public sector: it is also found worthy of being published as a case study in Inclusion magazine.
      
      

2. HR Excellence Award 2011

 Bandhan has bagged the Genius HR Excellence Award 2011 in the category of ‘Best HR Practices’. The award ceremony took place at Hyatt Regency, Kolkata on April 22, 2011. The prestigious award was handed over to Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Mentor, Bandhan. An illustrious body of HR think-tanks represented by Genius Consultants Ltd bestowed the Genius HR Excellence Award 2011. The HR Excellence Award recognizes the best in-class HR Professionals whose performance excel in terms of quality, delivery, achievements, value and innovation in HR gamut.
The award spotlights the importance of HR as a profession and contribution of HR towards the growth of an organization. The award takes a comprehensive look at the full spectrum of HR and is presented to the most outstanding achievers in these areas. The HR Excellence Award is not just recognizing what has been achieved so far. It is also an incentive to the achiever in the field of HR to innovate, improvise and continually upgrade HR governance, talent acquisition and management, compensation & benefits, employee welfare measures and performance review & management.
      
      

3. Skoch Financial Inclusion Award(2011)

The prestigious Skoch Financial Inclusion Award 2011 was conferred upon Bandhan for extending grant-based, sustainable support paraphernalia to the most economically displaced and marginalized population. The announcement was made at the awards ceremony at Hotel Shangri-La, New Delhi on January 05, 2011 being the Financial Inclusion Day.

The award was presented to Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Mentor, Bandhan by Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. The program that helped Bandhan earn the accolade is 'Chartering into Unventured Frontiers-Targeting the Hard Core Poor (CUF-THP)'. It is directed towards bringing about holistic and inspirational development in the lives of the most deprived section of the society thereby helping them graduate to mainstream finance.
      
      

4. Microfinance India Award

Bandhan was conferred the 'Institution of the Year' Award as a part of HSBC ACCESS Microfinance India Awards in Octorber 2009. Bandhan is the first recipient of the Award.
Bandhan was awarded for demonstrating excellence in financial performance and creating tremendous social impact through its microfinance operations.
The inspiration behind the HSBS ACCESS Microfinance India Awards is to recognize the contribution of notable thought leaders, policy makers, promoters and institutions which help translate the vision of reaching the poorest in a sustainable matter into reality. The Award seeks to recognize pioneering thought or product leadership or best practices followed by an institution. It also recognizes the outstanding contribution of institutions towards up scaling the microfinance sector in India.
Representative parameters for growth achieved, potential to upscale operations, and process/product /technological innovation towards achieving financial inclusion were some of the important considerations.
      
      

5. Skoch Challenger Award

 Skoch Challenger Award is one of the highest civilian honours in the country that recognizes people, projects and institutions for their extraordinary achievements in contributing to society. Instituted in 2003 to recognize best practices, the awards cover the best of efforts in the area of digital inclusion, financial inclusion and social inclusion. They encompass the best of governance, excellence in academics, capacity building, empowerment and other such issues that normally get lost in the glamour and the glitz.
Bandhan was conferred the Skoch Challenger Award for Financial Inclusion in March 2008, the first non-bank to receive such an award.
      
      

6. Forbes Award

In December 2007, Forbes magazine ranked Bandhan as the best performing MFI nationally and the second best globally. Bandhan was the only Indian MFI and one of the two Asian MFIs featuring in the top 10 MFIs globally.
Forbes' first-ever list of the World's Top 50 Microfinance Institutions were chosen from a field of 641 micro-credit providers.
All the MFIs were ranked on four parameters viz. scale, which is based on the size of their gross loan portfolio; efficiency, which considers operating expense and the cost per borrower as a percent of the gross national income per capita of their country of operation; risk, which looks at the quality of their loan portfolios, measured as the percent of the portfolio at risk greater than 30 days; and return, which is measured as a combination of return on equity and return on assets.
      
      

7. Senior Ashoka Fellow Award

In September 2007 Ashoka Innovators presented the award of “Senior Ashoka Fellow” to Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh for his outstanding work and innovative approach to poverty alleviation through microfinance.
Senior Fellows are advanced Fellows who are well beyond the launch stage and, at the time of election, have already created widespread impact and are recognized as leaders in their fields.

Ashoka Innovators for the public is a global organization with its headquarters in Washington, USA. It invests in fellowships to individuals who are crafting new solutions for existing social problems. Over 1700 Ashoka fellows are currently working in 52 countries in diverse fields such as education, health and human rights to bring about advances in areas of social concern.

      
      

8. Pro Poor Innovation Challenge Award

The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) is a consortium of 33 of the most prestigious public and private development agencies working together to expand access to financial services for the poor in developing countries.
The Pro-Poor Innovation Challenge (PPIC) has been a cornerstone of this agenda, funding smaller institutions that demonstrate effective models and methodologies for deepening poverty outreach and impact, while working toward sustainability.

I mpressed with Bandhan's focus in reaching poor women by providing them with cost effective microfinance services, CGAP conferred the PPIC Award to Bandhan by way of an operational grant of US$25,000 in early 2006.