Is There a Microfinance Bubble in South India?

By, Daniel Rozas , Microfinance Consultant

By most standards, microfinance is a young sector, and in many countries it can be said to still be in its infancy. Yet its continuing spectacular growth, especially in India, should give one pause – every time promoters celebrate another multi-million-client threshold, I wonder – how many more such thresholds are left? How do we know when we’ve arrived?

This is not a philosophical question – normally, markets send...

Post Reform Period: Institutional Credit And Rural Poor

By Dr. Amrit Patel

One of the objectives of the rural credit policy has been to minimize the dependence of rural poor on non-institutional sources of credit. The study of Basic Statistical Returns, 2005; Census data, 2001 and the Debt and Investment Survey during 1992 and 2003, however, exhibited a dismal performance of rural credit institutions, their policy and implementation.

Average population per branch served by scheduled commercial banks in rural areas was 13,462 in 1991 as...