Editor's note

Avoid debt at all costs? A new study on microcredit suggests the opposite: with just a 10% increase in the gross loan portfolio per client, microlending could lift more than 10.5 million people in the developing world out of extreme poverty by enabling poor households to start their own small businesses.

Find that story and more recent business and finance coverage – including articles on global trade and corporate social responsibility in India and a closer look at the robots that are taking over Wall Street – at The Conversation Global.

Catesby Holmes

Global Commissioning Editor

The first microloans were made to women in rural Bangladesh in the 1970s. Banesa Khatun (far left) here in 2006, was still using Grameen Bank 30 years later. Rafiquar Rahman/Reuters

Yes, microlending reduces extreme poverty

Quanda Zhang, RMIT University

A new study finds that giving small loans to very poor people reduces both the incidence and depth of poverty in the developing world.

Information technology-related services have been the growth engine of India’s exports. Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Here's how India can become more integrated in global trade

Deeparghya Mukherjee, National University of Singapore

India needs to improve connectivity infrastructure and industrial laws to raise its ranking in world trade.

A lot of Indian banks get involved in education programs. Jayanta Dey/Reuters

In India, a legislative reform is needed to push corporate social responsibility

Ameeta Jain, Deakin University; Sandeep Gopalan, Deakin University

India has gone further than any other country in legislating for corporate social responsibility. But the law should be redrafted to enhance precision and stakeholder orientation.

An early prototype of the IBM Watson cognitive computing system in Yorktown Heights, NY. It was originally the size of a master bedroom in 2011. Wikipedia

Are robots taking over the world's finance jobs?

Nafis Alam, Sunway University; Graham Kendall, University of Nottingham

Banks are relying more and more on robots that perform financial services.