Micro Finance – A Catalyst in Accelerating the Growth of Indian Rural Economy

Abstract

Growth of a nation does not refer to the development of infrastructure, innovations and technology. In fact it is truly associated with the development of all citizens in terms of their standard of living. A country travels in development path if all the people are caught up in the process of growth and enjoy quality of living by accessing to basic facilities of life such as food, clothing, housing, health, clean water, education, employment and good natural and social environment. It all happens when economy is sound and have consistent growth rate. In our country the economic growth rate is directly depends on the development of rural areas as it is the backbone to the economy. Providing financial support to rural people is a Hercules task as they do not maintain any formal and necessary documents, failing which banks or any other financial institutions do not grant even a single penny. In this connection, Microfinance institutions help the people in rural areas with a variety of services with minimal documentation. It includes loan, savings, credit, money transfer, insurance, pension and other financial innovations etc. In this research an attempt is made to ascertain new approaches to measure the impact of microfinance in the development of rural areas.