ICOMFI 2011 - Experiences

Account Knowledge Management - expl...

The International Conference on Microfinance has become a regular fixture of the Pondicherry
University calendar. And it was successfully held for the fourth successive year from 27th to 29th of
January, 2011, this year. The conference organizers have been zealously endeavoring to make this truly
international in flavor and content. Backed by able support from JAK Tareen, the Vice-Chancellor, the
highlight of this years conference was the inaugural issue of an International Journal on Microfinance
Research. The Vice Chancellor has also promised support in setting up a Center for Microfinance
Research. Hopefully, these initiatives will make subsequent conferences a lot more useful to
researchers, academicians and the industry.

A very curious phenomenon that was witnessed this year was a conspicuous absence of sponsors for the
event. Barring NABARD and Indian Bank who have been loyal supporters of this event year after year, it
was quite strange to see that the entire place was bereft of banners and hoardings, one usually
associates with conferences. One wonders whether this was by design or a curious case of a
combination of delayed impact of the recession combined with the turmoil this sector has been going
through since November, 2010.

Having organized three editions prior to getting here, perhaps I had set my bar a little too high, from a
content-perspective; I was clearly disappointed. While the thrust of the discussions, Financial Inclusion
and Financial Literacy by itself, was a little too broad, the content and the topics discussed were even
more unimaginative. While most panelists were eminent people with several years of experience in the
sector, it seemed that they were all from the same school of thought a recipe guaranteed to kill even a
soupcon of debate. It would have been interesting to have had someone from an opposing school of
thought one that would have provoked a discussion, or even some serious interaction among the
audience. What made the proceedings even more monotonous was the presence of the same set of
panelists who came up on stage to speak about practically the same subject, albeit with different
headingsif one was titled Self Help Groups and Financial Inclusion, the other Financial Literacy and
SHGthe same content got repeated with varying degrees of verbosityad nauseum.

Clearly, one area which we will definitely expect to see a quantum improvement in the following years
will be the Technical Sessions. For an international conference in which the accepted papers get
published as a book volume (with an ISBN), one might expect a much higher standard of research
papers. Instead, it was quite disappointing to see blatant plagiarism, meaningless surveys, poorly
formulated hypotheses and unconvincing data models pass for research. In a sense this highlights one
of the serious flaws of our academic institutions the poor quality of research. One hopes that such
papers do not get into the International Journal of Microfinance Research. And one fervently hopes that
the setting up of a Center for Microfinance Research will allow for more serious research to take place in
this Central University.

Perhaps, the best part of this conference for me was Dr. Detlev Hollohs inaugural speech. Dr. Holloh,
Director, GIZ, in his speech laced with references to Mahatma Gandhi, Vinobha Bhave and the
Sarvodaya movement, showed he was more in touch with agrarian rustic India than several of his Indian
peers. If his dissection of the problem was scientific, the proposed solution seemed almost too obvious.
One sincerely hopes that his fervent plea to strengthen the agricultural sector will be heard by the policy
makers and that a more holistic program shall emerge which will allow the resurgence of microfinance
as a poverty alleviation device one that can be truly self-sustainable.
I had a good time. I only wished I had also learned something more.