Mr. Vikram Akula
Chief Executive Officer
Swayam Krishi Sangam, India
839-S, Road No. 44/A, Jubilee Hills
Hyderabad, 500 033
India

Swayam Krishi Sangam, India is led by Vikram Akula, son of Indian immigrants in the US, who decided to go back to his roots. As an undergraduate at Yale he was back every summer and then prior to graduate school at Chicago he spent a year as a volunteer with a local NGO. Vikram however realized that grant dependent NGOs were incapable of reaching out to large numbers of poor people. It was at this time that he met Professor Muhammad Yunus. Vikram was strongly influenced by him and went to Bangladesh to see Grameen Bank in action. He decided that the course he wanted to follow was microfinance. SKS was thus set up in December 1998, devoted to the twin objectives of sustainability and working exclusively with the poorest. Swayam Krishi Sangam (SKS) is one of the four recipients of the first CGAP Pro-Poor Innovation Challenge, an award program for innovative poverty focussed MFIs. SKS received the award for a program to introduce smart cards to lower transactions costs so that financial services to the poorest can be sustainable.