Major Themes and Concerns of Impact Analysis in the Indian Microfinance sector: Analytical Views

The development efforts being pursued in India are becoming more inclusive and consequently the matrix of intervention strategies that are available to address the major socio-economic challenges facing the country has also become wider with Microfinance emerging as an important component of the same. Within the research pertaining to the Indian microfinance sector, analysis of the nature, measurement, extent, levels, lags, empowerment effects and related dimensions of impacts that originate due to access to microfinance have been lively areas of debate and research. Given the prime role that impact evaluation plays in determining the success and spread of microfinance services, this paper undertakes a critical review of literature in order to attempt an investigation of the various problems and concerns, broad trends, and related matters pertaining to the impact analysis scenario in India's microfinance sector. Considerable insights into the various conceptual and empirical matters related to this area of research have been unearthed and they supply some useful indications for possible future research also.