Mr. Vijay Mahajan
Vijay Mahajan, born 1954, is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), 1970-75, a post-graduate of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), 1979-81, and was a mid-career fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public International Affairs, Princeton University, USA, 1988-89, where he studied economic development policy. In 1983, he established an NGO, PRADAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action, www.pradan.net), along with Deep Joshi who joined it full-time in 1986. By 2009, PRADAN worked with over 150,000 poor households, promoting livelihoods and community institutions.Moving on from PRADAN in 1991, in search of a scalable, mainstream approach to livelihood promotion, Vijay carried out various consulting assignments related to rural livelihoods from 1991-95, for the World Bank, SDC and NABARD. Vijay co-authored a book The Forgotten Sector: Non-Farm Employment and Enterprises in Rural India (London: ITDG, 1996) and since then has published over 20 articles on microfinance, livelihoods and development, including in the International Journal of Development and the Economic and Political Weekly of India.In 1995, Vijay conceptualised BASIX as a “new generation livelihood promotion institution” and it was set up in mid 1996. Till March 31, 2010, BASIX had helped support the livelihoods of over a million and a half poor households in the agriculture, allied and non-farm sectors by extending micro-credit worth over Rs 2250 crore (USD 500 million), with a 99.1% repayment rate. He was a member of the Committee on Financial Sector Reforms, and Committee on Financial Inclusion. He serves on several boards and has been advisor to Palnning Commission of India, RBI, NABARD and different state governments. He was featured among the India’s 50 most powerful people by Business Week in 2009. Mr. Vijay Mahajan is the CEO and chairman of BASIX Group.
