90) Poverty is extensive in the region, but improvements in the economies of the countries of the regions is beginning to reap benefits. India is seeing a growing number of members of India's middle class, and indigenous industries (like the Tata corporation) are producing consumer goods (such as the Nano, a very small, entry-level car) specifically designed to appeal to and to meet the price

Question

constraints of India's people. Sri Lanka has made great strides overall because of its emphasis on and funding of education and health care. Pakistan spends a great deal on its military, which takes funds from human development. Bhutan and Nepal lie high up in the Himalayas, and have very small economies and a great deal of poverty. The Maldives have the most prosperous in the region.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Grameen Bank originated in Bangladesh. The mission of the bank is to extend credit to low-income people, most notably women, in the form of microfinance, or low-interest microcredit, to attempt to bring rural people out of poverty and give them a sense of economic empowerment. Critics of the Grameen Bank point to the fact too often the loans are taken out simply to purchase household consumption in lieu of economic development in the form of small business development.