Performance of micro finance institutions with reference to selected MFIS in India Sravani M. Research Scholar, Department of Business Management, Krishna University, Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh Online published on 2 July, 2015. Abstract From small efforts of starting informal self-help groups (SHG) to access the much-needed savings and credit services in the early 1980s, the microfinance sector has grown significantly today. The fact that national bodies like Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) are devoting significant time, energy and financial resources on microfinance is an indication of the reckoning of the sector. The strength of the microfinance organizations (MFOs) in India is in the diversity of approaches and forms that have evolved over a period of time. While India has its home-grown model of SHGs, and mutually aided co-operative societies (MACS) there is significant learning from other microfinance experiments across the world, particularly Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Bolivia. The poor and rural people need micro financial services both for credit and savings to undertake economic activity, smoothen consumption, mitigate vulnerability to income shocks, increase savings and to support self empowerment. Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) are the main players in the micro finance space. The MFIs could play a significant role in facilitating inclusion, as they are uniquely positioned in reaching out to the rural poor. Many of them operate in a limited geographical area, have a greater understanding of the issues specific to the rural poor, enjoy greater acceptability amongst the rural poor and have flexibility in operations providing a level of comfort to their clientele. Many MFIs around the world are still making efforts to reach more number of vulnerable poor and also to achieve sustainability. Today the issue of achieving sustainability is of concern for most of the MFIs in India also. In India great crisis struck the Andhra Pradesh (state) Micro Finance Industry by the way of suicides by helpless borrowers, which in turn created doubt on the efficacy of most of the MFIs in the country. In these circumstances the author made an attempt to study the performance of selected MFIs. In this scenario the author made an effort to know the performance of selected MFIs taking into consideration various performance indicators. Top Keywords Microfinance, self-help groups (SHG), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Top |