Commercialisation of Microfinance in India: Is it all Bad?

by Manoj Sharma and Graham Wright
May 19, 2010
1 min

This note puts rays on the commercialisation of Indian microfinance leading to a massive increase in outreach and expansion of credit to the poor in India.

With the growing scale of the MFIs, the competition they provide for Government-sponsored SHG programmes and imminent IPOs from SKS, Share and Spandana, the Government and RBI, are showing growing signs of disquiet. The commercialisation of Indian microfinance has allowed a massive increase in outreach and expansion of credit to the poor in India, at rates of interest that are (by world standards at least) relatively modest … but there are many that wish that the path to growth had been more moderate, controlled, patient and focused on the double bottom-line.