Thaindian News

Dhaka, March 8 (IANS) Muhammad Yunus who set up the Grameen Bank and pioneered microcredit for rural women has spoken for the poor at various international fora, including the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The idea of Grameen Bank has ben replicated in many countries across the world. In 2006, Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Earlier, he won the Independence Day Award (1987) and the World Food Prize (1994).

Yunus, 70, partially trained in the US, began his career teaching economics. He later quit to start the credit line for rural women who could not hope to get bank credit.

After his Grameen initiative became successful, having three million clients, Yunus founded a telecom company, Grameen Phone, which has Bangladesh’s largest telecom network. His plans include making sports shoes through which he hopes to provide more jobs to the poor.

Yunus has stayed away from politics except for a brief period when he set up the Nagorik Shakti (Citizen’s Power) party. He disbanded it later.

He courted controversy after a documentary made in Norway last year accused him of siphoning off funds donated for the bank. Although the Norwegian government stood by Yunus and said that an old dispute over the use of funds had been amicably settled, Yunus was dogged by criticism at home.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had referred to the bank “sucking the blood of poor” and her government sought his removal on the ground that he was well past the age of superannuation.

Yunus said he was ready to step down but wanted his succession to take place smoothly.

The Dhaka High Court Tuesday rejected Yunus’s writ petition challenging the legality of his removal as managing director of Grameen Bank.