Kudos to Professor Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2006

I admire his selfless mission and unique revolutionary economic doctrine in giving tiny loans to millions of poor people in Bangladesh whereby no commercial bank would touch — destitute widows and abandoned wives, landless labourers and rickshaw drivers, sweepers and beggars. What an amazing pioneer spirit he possessed? No wonder, he was nicknamed as "banker to the poor".

His notable micro credit theory was well implemented. In the developing world the poor often work at home with raw materials bought with borrowed money. The finished wares have to be sold back to the moneylenders, leaving scarcely enough, after repaying the loan with interest, to feed the family. A failure to repay a debt ends up with people especially children paying by working as bonded labour. Microfinance banks break the cycle by lending to the poor to buy raw materials. This means the workers can sell at a fair price on the open market, a price which is enough to service the debt, feed the family and make a profit. To ensure that debts are paid, money is often lent to groups, particularly women, who appear to respond better to financial terms. Less than a dozen clients guarantee each other's loans and a default by one could result in the entire group being penalised. The resulting peer pressure means repayment rates exceed 95%. What an astonishing achievement? His selfless service has rendered to the poorest of the poor and bringing hope to the hopeless. This in turn will give them a cause of life. There goes a famous saying " Give me a fish, I eat for a day. Teach me to fish, I eat for a lifetime." Most of the aids given by the third world governments do not really reach the hard-core poor. On the contrary, they are siphoned to nowhere. Oh, what a pity!

This micro credit plays an important role to eliminate poverty and ultimately bring peace. It is indeed true that lasting peace cannot be achieved unless a large segment of the population breaks out of poverty. An end to poverty will create a more livable situation between the have-nots and the haves.

One of his unusual notions that I really respect is "All we are doing is telling beggars that, well, since you go house to house begging, would you like to take some merchandise with you, some cookies, some candy, something? With a typical loan of something like $12, she has a basket of merchandise she carries around and goes house to house. Today, many beggars have already quit begging completely."

The poor do not need any grant to change their life. They have this power in them. You remove the lid of the hidden power and poor people will automatically change their lives. Micro credit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions. Professor said, "If you can make so many people so happy with such a small amount of money, why shouldn't you do more of it?" That is a dynamic move that needs to be given full recognition and due attention by the developing countries.

That simple notion has put in motion a huge range of imitators and innovators who have taken that idea and run with it, improved on it as well as expanded it. This is indeed a giant leap leading from the ridiculous to the sublime!!