The idea of Rang De was born in the year 2006, the same year that Professor Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer-to-peer lending model could be leveraged to lower the cost of microcredit. Rangde.org went live on 26 January 2008 and this is the belief system that has shaped Rang De. We decided on the name Rang De after a lot of thought. The name draws inspiration from India’s struggle for independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words ‘rang de’ also denote colour and exuberance and that is the impact we want our efforts to have on the people we reach out to.
