The school coaches women and girls with no formal education in entrepreneurship, accountancy, bank finance, marketing skills and supports them in running independent enterprises as vendors, screen printers, bag makers and photographers. Funds for the projects come from HSBC. Sinha, who is also founder and chairperson of the rural bank, says at least 6,000 projects have been financed so far.

The Mhaswad bank operates across five districts and is a fully computerised bank that offers weekly and fortnightly credit and savings schemes to its customers, most of whom are daily or weekly wage earners. Unlike other banks, it also provides daily loans for buying vegetables and fruits. With 48,000 members, the bank enjoys a repayment rate of over 95 per cent. The bank has helped create 16,720 women entrepreneurs in the region around Mhaswad. The clientele is made up of poor women with annual incomes averaging Rs 22,000.

Luka Heindricks of the ICN Business School is helping the bank and MDU with some technical inputs and is even working on a programme to introduce the microcredit system back home. “It has been a very enriching stay here and these women taught us a lot,” he says.

MDU has other plans too—it is set to launch a community radio project in September. Just like the bank and the school, the community radio too will be run by women, said Padma Kuber, who is in charge of the project.

Vaishali Khamke, who was cleared for the radio programme after a voice test, is elated. “As a child, I have worked at a radio station. I am very excited about this,” says Khamke.