Micro Finance

Apr, 2013

Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) are the key players in helping and supporting the cause of financial inclusion. Grameen Bank which was established in Bangladesh to help poor in improving their livelihood conditions has pioneered the movement of MFIs all across the globe. SKS was a great success story for India, however its fate is not less known by its stakeholders as well as the patron of all, the government. It is really nice to hear policy makers, bankers, MFI representatives etc who show their concern for poor and poverty through their talks and data support.

Nov, 2012

The informal economy always play crucial role in the developmental economies. The confluence of positive political will, institutional infrastructure and availability of progressive finance creates facilitative climate to grow informal economy which generally the developing economies extend.

Aug, 2012

Finding it hard to believe these enormous claims, I asked Sinclair for evidence regarding the claims made in his book and he pointed me to some documents in the public domain (and at the book website – www.microfinancetransparency.com) as being relevant to the LAPO case. A couple of documents relating to Triple Jump (TJ) he claimed that he did not possess on hand but stated that he had seen them at work (as described in the book). In my opinion, after having seen the various documents, I feel that it may be difficult for Sinclair to prove some of his claims with regard to intentions and related issues.

Feb, 2012

Targeting to half the absolute poverty with having 37% population under poverty level and employment seeking population of 40 million (9.4% - calculated as a percentage of labor force) India needs a vertically reached effective tool with larger objective of poverty eradication. Contextually as an agrarian economy and having contribution in employment of 52.1 percent of the total workforce, agriculture would have been the best tool to adopt. However looking at the level of stagnation, over employment and high level of disguised employment in the agriculture sector it is crucial to adopt the best possible alternative. In this critical circumstances the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (henceforth MSME) sector has a justification to emerge as the effective tool as it is showing gradual and steady growth. MSME sector contributes 8 percent of the country's GDP and well known for providing the maximum opportunities for both self-employment and jobs after agriculture sector. It is also contributing significantly to the economy. The growth of MSE (Micro and Small Enterprise) sector is also significant; during 2007-08 the overall industrial growth rate was 8.5% where MSE sector had projected growth of 13.00%.

Jan, 2012

It is very easy to talk high flying concepts at conferences and also publicly claim that the same is being applied in practice. In reality, however, much of the intended strategies do not get implemented in microfinance and that is something that conference organizers, industry associations, regulators and stakeholders must take notice

Sep, 2011

In the Indian micro-finance sector, self-regulation through such voluntary codes of conduct has been less than effective since institutional capacities of industry associations (MFIN or Sa-Dhan) have often been limited, micro-finance markets are highly concentrated and dominated by a small number of MFIs, the legal framework for micro-finance services is underdeveloped, and available the laws and regulations (like RBI code of conduct for NBFCs) are frequently not effectively applied or enforced.

The National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) is one of the major programs of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. While the NRLM promises a lot with regard to creation and strengthening of rural livelihoods, it does suffer some serious shortcomings, which if not addressed are likely to see it move in the same path as the IRDP, SGSY and/or other programs.