Microfinance in India: Past, present and future

Poverty is the main cause of concern in improving the economic status of developing countries. Micro-finance is the idea that low-income individuals are capable of lifting themselves out of poverty if given access to financial services. A microfinance institution is an organization that offers financial services to low income populations. Most of microfinance institutions give loans to their members, offer insurance, deposit and other services. The past decade and more of micro-finance development and penetration has created a world that even in some of the most deprived and isolated places on the planet, micro-finance has proven to support the poor on a sustainable basis, something that cannot be said for many other kinds of interventions, financial and otherwise. This paper is an attempt to understand past, present and future of microfinance in India.