Micro-Meltdown is Vikram Akula's attempt to clarify narrative around his ouster from SKS Microfinance (later Bharat Financial Services before acquisition by IndusInd Bank).  Akula grew up in upstate New York and after a couple of family trips to India, he decides to go back to help eliminate poverty. This leads him to establish the non-profit SKS Microfinance modelled after Grameen Bank's microcredit self-help group model.

The increasing popularity of the microfinance space and its lack of regulation in the 2010s led to the industry's backlash from politicians. The politicians began attacking microfinance institutions and telling those living in poverty not to repay loans. Subsequently, SKS has to write off USD 280 million in loans and lay off 10, 000 employees. Eventually, SKS and other microfinanciers were branded the new shylocks by media outlets and the overnight vilification of microfinance.

Micro-Meltdown has a bit of a slow start at in the first few chapters but gains momentum as one goes through Vikram's story. Akula is honest in his account of the events that led to the downfall of SKS. As a reader, it would be difficult not to empathise with the situations that he went through as a husband, father and a social entrepreneur. 

They say that experience is the best teacher as long as it is not your own. Vikram Akula's personal and professional micro-meltdowns provide a number of key lessons for (potential) social entrepreneurs. If Micro-Meltdown gets made in a Bollywood movie (though I don't think there will much singing and dancing; please get Shah Rukh Khan to play Vikram), I want front row tickets. But until then, I am on the hunt for my physical copy.