ANALYSIS OF MICROFINANCE INSTITUTION'S PERFORMANCE IN INDIA

Abstract

In last few years and decades, Microfinance has been a powerful source of poverty alleviation in various parts of the world. It helps a region to become financially self-sustainable. Due to its features like reduction in poverty and providing sustainability to the people with respect to financial aspects, Microfinance has gained lot of popularity amongst the various source of financing. It has helped in bridging the gap amongst poorer section of the society by providing adequate amount to start with a self-sustenance plan. It helps the poor and low-income clients deal with their basic needs. Anyone who has access to microfinance services is more resilient and better able to deal with everyday demands. Microfinance has evolved, over the period, as an economic development approach intended to benefit low-income women and men. Savings and Credit are the two popular financial services being provided by Microfinance organization along with provisions for insurance and payment services. An associated term is also used which is called as Microcredit which favors the short term loans to the poor people specifically in the developing or under-developed countries. The common borrowers are artisans, farmers, women, shopkeepers, small business owners, etc. In addition to financial intermediation, many micro-finance institutions (MFIs) also provide social intermediation services such as group formation, development of self-confidence, and training in financial and management capabilities among members of group. So Microfinance involves both the financial aspect as well as the social aspect for providing funding to the people rather than becoming a simple banking activity zone. It rather acts a development tool for the region which covers majorly financial aspects for the people living in a particular region. Now the major question that arises is whether institutions which want to enter into Micro-financing activity should penetrate into the Indian market or not. It’s a social activity rather than a full-fledged commercial activity, so should they invest in a particular region in India to derive maximum output for the investments? The current study tries to answer such question and gives insights to the companies who want to enter into Micro-financial activities. There are 10 Micro-financial Institutions which have been studied which are working actively in India through the various Micro-financing activities. Their performance have been evaluated using their working strength in the country, the workable branches in India, Amount disbursed till March 2014, Number of Borrowers, Outstanding portfolio, Revenue Generation, Profit After Tax, Organization’s Assets, and their Net Worth. The results indicate that the Micro-financial institutions are doing well in terms of providing loans and credit facilities in the poor regions of the country and are eventually making good profit out of it. Based on the data analysis, some recommendations for companies, adopting Micro-financing activities for the first time, have been included.