Microfinance: Issues and challenges in India

In the recent time microfinance has received increased attention among the researcher and financial service providers, as a good alternative in the rural credit market. India is perhaps the largest emerging market for microfinance. Over the past decade, the microfinance sector has been growing in India at a fairly balanced pace. Various study revealed that microfinance is a powerful instrument for poverty alleviation, enabling the poor to accumulate the assets, boost their incomes, and reduce their economic vulnerability. The main purpose of the paper is to identify the opportunities and challenges faced by Microfinance Institutions in India. The paper provides insight for understanding the concepts of microfinance and the present scenario of demand and supply gap of microfinance in India. The paper also makes an attempt to provide some required suggestion to fulfill the gap.