Madura Micro Finance (Chennai and Madurai) is dedicated to bringing multiple financial products coupled with information services to the underserved rural population in Tamil Nadu.

In 2007, Forbes ranked Madura’s predecessor organization Microcredit Foundation of India as one of the most cost efficient microfinance institutions worldwide.

Madura has experienced tremendous success, developing an innovative culture and a customer-centric approach. Founded in 1995 by the late Dr. Thiagarajan, a well-known and respected banker and businessman, the company began making microcredit loans to Self Help Groups of self-assembled rural women who came together to guarantee each other’s loans and form a learning and support group for one another.

Tara Thiagarajan

Tara is primarily a scientist whose interests encompass understanding complex systems and using a science based approach to solve large scale human problems through scalable for-profit enterprise.

Tara is also currently a visiting scientist at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore where she works on understanding how dynamical structures of distributed electrical activity give rise to integrated perception and behaviour.

Tara has a PhD in Neuroscience from Stanford University where she worked on how neurons adapt to changes in their ability to communicate with one another. In her pre-science life she did a BA in Mathematics at Brandeis University and an MBA from the
Kellogg School of Management where she was an Austin scholar.

She is the Chairperson and Managing Director of Madura and the Director of Microcredit Foundation of India.