Since Independence in 1947, the Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have made concerted efforts to provide the poor with access to credit. Despite the phenomenal increase in the physical outreach of formal credit institutions in the past several decades, the rural poor continue to depend on informal sources of credit. Institutions have also faced difficulties in dealing effectively with a large number of small borrowers, whose credit needs are small and frequent and their ability to offer collaterals is limited. Besides, cumbersome procedures and risk perceptions of the banks left a gap in serving the credit needs of the rural poor.

This led to a search for alternative policies, systems and procedures, saving and loan products, other complementary services and new delivery mechanisms that would fulfil the requirements of the poor. It is in this context that micro credit has emerged as the most suitable and practical alternative to the conventional banking in reaching the hitherto unreached poor population.

Micro finance is the provision of a broad range of financial services such as deposits, loans, payments, money transfers, and insurance to the low-income households and their micro enterprises. The basic purpose of micro finance is to provide access to financial assistance, including credit to the poor to enable them to start/expand micro enterprises to break out of poverty. Micro credit enables the poor people to be thrifty and helps them in availing the credit and other financial services for improving their income and living standards.

The micro credit programme, which was formally heralded in 1992 with a modest pilot project of linking around 500 Self-help Groups (SHGs), has made rapid strides in India exhibiting considerable democratic functioning and group dynamism. The micro credit programme in India is now the largest in the world. The SHG-Bank Linkage Programme was launched in 1992 as a flagship programme by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). The Programme envisages organisation of the rural poor into SHGs for building their capacities to manage their own finances and then negotiate bank credit on commercial terms.

This book contains 45 papers contributed by scholars in the field of micro finance. These have been categorised into the following 5 theme parts.

? Micro Finance: General Observations

? Micro Finance, Self-help Groups (SHGs) and Financial Inclusion

? Micro Finance, Poverty Alleviation and Empowerment of Women

? Technical Aspects of Micro Finance

? Micro Finance: Case Studies in India and Abroad

The volume is designed to contribute to the existing body of literature available on micro finance. The work is fairly replete with inspiring and enlightening matter and hence it will commend itself to all categories of readers, particularly academicians, researchers, government functionaries, teachers and students of economics, commerce and business management.

1. Growth of Micro Finance in India - Daniel Lazar and P. Palanichamy

2. Aspiration Paradox in Micro Finance - Wendy Olsen

3. Micro Finance for Poverty Reduction in India - Anupam Panigrahi and Shobhit

4. Micro Finance: An Overview - Abdullah-Al-Mamun and Ridhwan Fontaine

5. Micro Finance and the Millennium Development Goals - Sanjay Khan

6. Micro Finance in Housing - P.K. Manoj

7. Future Directions of Micro Finance - M. Hilaria Soundari

8. Beneath the Surface: Courtship between Capitalism and Socialism - Leena Mehta

9. Pros and Cons of Micro Credit Programme - Amit Kundu

10. Micro Credit and Empowerment of Marginal Farmers - A. Thomas

11. Linkage between Self-help Groups (SHGs) and Banks in India - A. Ramanathan

12. Self-help Groups (SHGs) and Empowerment of Women: An Anthropological Study - V. Sucharita

13. Self-help Groups (SHGs) and Banks: A Performance Review - Padmaja Manoharan and R. Nirmala Devi

14. Micro Enterprises: Viability and Impact on Self-help Groups (SHGs) - Joseph Jayaraj and Lissy John Irimpan

15. Financial Inclusion through Micro Credit - B.K. Swain

16. Financial Inclusion in India - M. Mahadeva

17. Micro Credit in Alleviating Poverty: Issues and Options - K. Srinivasan and Malabika Deo

18. Micro Finance for Empowerment of Women - A.Victor Devadoss and M.Selvaraj

19. Serving the Poor through Commercial Micro Finance - Radha Purswani

20. Poverty Reduction by Debt Reduction - Rev. Fr. Antonysamy

21. Micro Credit: An Anti-poverty Tool - U. Jerinabi and K. Kanniammal

22. Socio-economic Empowerment of Women through Self-help Groups (SHGs) - R. Vijayalakshmi and G. Valarmathi

23. Micro Credit and Upliftment of Women through Education - S. Chinnammai

24. Poverty Eradication through Micro Pensions - Uthira. D and Hansa Lysander Manohar

25. Partial Joint Liability, Revenue Sharing and Heterogeneous Group Formation - Dyuti Banerjee and Anupama Sethi

26. Micro Finance Impact Evaluation at Household Level - Zaid Negash Zewde and Eric Tollens

27. A General Theory of Micro Finance - Ted Azarmi

28. Micro Finance Institutions and Technical Efficiency in India - P. Mahendra Varman and Samyukta Ramgopal

29. Model Micro Finance Act - M.R. Meghavath

30. Regulatory Issues and Strategies in Micro Insurance - V. Mahalakshmi

31. Micro Finance through Community Polytechnics: A Conceptual Framework - Manish Kumar Jha, Mitali Sen and J.K. Pattanayak

32. Micro Finance Delivery Methods and Models in India: A Historical Perspective - Anurag Priyadarshee

33. Micro Finance: Technology for Delivery Methods and Models - B. Kanti Kiran

34. Risk Attitude of Households in Choosing Formal and Informal Insurance - Kristiano Raccanello, Jayant Anand and Abelardo Valdés

35. Micro Finance in South India - Marc Roesch and Ophelie Helies

36. Micro Finance: A Case Study of Jaunpur District - D.C. Pathak and S.K. Pant

37. Evaluation of Micro Finance in the Union Territory of Pondicherry - K. Sham Bhat and K. Durai Raj

38. Impact of Micro Finance on Poverty Eradication in Kenya - Clifford Getaro Machogu

39. Micro Finance: A Case Study of Sivaganga District - P. Natarajan

40. Micro Entrepreneurial Schemes in Orissa - Panka Toppo, S.J. and Amar KJR Nayak

41. Self-help Groups (SHGs) and Economic Empowerment of Women in Thirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu - S. Ramachandran, S. Sasikumar

and E. Kanagaraj

42. Economic Status of Members of Self-help Groups (SHGs) in Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu - S. Sudalaimuthu and P. Senthil Kumar

43. Self-help Groups (SHGs) and Poverty Alleviation in Ramanathapuram District - A. Jasmine

44. Financial Inclusion of Tribal Migrants: A Case Study of Kawant Block in Gujarat - Abhishek Joshi and Mangesh Patankar

45. Micro Credit and Empowerment: A Case Study of Kudumbashree Projects in Kerala - V.P. Raghavan and Saleena N.J.

Professor P. Palanichamy is Head, Department of Commerce, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry. He has served the commerce fraternity for more than 30 years. He specialises in the areas of banking, financial institutions and markets, organisational behaviour and personnel management, forex and global financial markets and Indian financial system. He is Chairman, Post-graduate Board of Studies in E-commerce in Bharathidasan University, Thiruchirapalli. He is also the nominee of the Vice-chancellor of Madras University on the Post-graduate Board of Studies in Commerce of Presidency College (Autonomous), Chennai. He is a member of the National Institute of Personal Management, Pondicherry chapter.