The List of Micro-Finance / Micro-Credit Institutions in India

Asmitha – Provides rural poor women access to financial resources in the form of collateral free small loans for income generation and livelihood promotion. This enables them to set-off small start up business, which soon translates into adequate nutrition, medical aid and education. With increased businesses, these low-income women become economic agents intrinsic to development rather than simply homemakers

Bandhan MF- Bandhan was set up to address the dual objective of poverty alleviation and women empowerment.The microfinance activities are carried on by Bandhan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. (BFSPL), incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and also registered as a Non Banking Financial Company (NBFC) with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).That apart, Bandhan is also engaged in development work through it’s not for profit entity.

Cashpor India – Our mission is to identify and motivate poor women in the rural areas and to deliver financial services to them in an honest, timely and efficient manner so that our Vision is realized and CASHPOR itself becomes a financially sustainable micro finance institution for the poor.

Grameen Foundation – Works in 6 key areas : Connecting microfinance institutions with capital markets, Strengthening organizations by building people practices, Harnessing the power of technology, Helping track people’s movement out of poverty, Sharing knowledge widely for broader impact and Social Business

Grameen Koota – Grameen Koota recognises the future competition and challenge of retaining exclusivity of clients. Instead of targeting a high market share in high competition areas we will focus on increasing the ‘mind share’ amongst client and becoming a preferred microfinance provider. We will leverage our existing goodwill with the community and have a strong focus on orienting our field staff towards this objective.

Hand in Hand – is a development organisation whose objective is to eliminate poverty by creating enterprises and jobs. Focusing on help to self-help, we take a holistic approach that combines microfinance and support for women to start enterprises with work in four other areas that matter most to poor communities: education and child labour elimination, health and sanitation, a sustainable local environment and information technology access.  With currently more than 450,000 members in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, who have collectively started more than 250,000 micro-enterprises, our goal is to create 1.3 million jobs by 2013. Supported by international offices in the UK and Sweden, we are now taking our model to South Africa, Afghanistan and Latin America.

Micro Credit India – Microcredit Foundation of India (MFI) is a not-for-profit Section 25 Company in Tamil Nadu dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and community level action in rural areas as a means to sustainable economic prosperity. Today MFI works primarily with women. Through its field staff, MFI helps them form Self Help Groups (SHGs), trains them in good financial practice, facilitates access to microcredit loans, equips them with business skills and facilitates access to new markets for their products.

MYRADA – MYRADA is a Non Governmental Organisation managing rural development programmes in 3 States of South India and providing on-going support including deputations of staff to programmes in 6 other States. It also promotes the Self Help Affinity strategy in Cambodia, Myanmar and Bangladesh

New Life – New Life designs projects based on survey of the socio,economic problems of the project area and support the poor, abused and abandoned children and  women by executing the projects with a defined goals/objectives. The current projects of New Life includes orphanages for  children of incarcerated parents,Save children from Child Labour,Ensuring primary education for the rural children in India,Early learning centres for children of vulnerable community groups,Read to Lead Project, Taking care of the medical needs of Physically handicapped and Mentally retarded children.

RangDe – Rang De’s mission is to make microcredit accessible to every low income household by lowering loan interest rates through innovative means.Rang De is committed to enabling individuals to become social investors through a transparent platform. While strive to improve Rangde.org as an interface, we work extensively with our field partners to ensure that we do not compromise on our vision – making credit available at affordable rates.

Saadhana – SAADHANA is a non- profit organization established in the year 2001 to reach out to the urban and rural poor women with the specific mandate to catalyze the ‘Endeavor of the Poor for Self-Sufficiency’.

Samrudhi – SAMRUDHI’s mission is to empower the poor and underprivileged to become economically self-reliant by providing cost effective and need based financial services in a financially sustainable manner.

SKS India Launched in 1998, SKS Microfinance is one of the fastest growing microfinance organizations in the world, having provided over US $ 1.8 Billion (9,129 Crore) and has maintained loans outstanding of US $ 605 Million(Rs.2,937 Crore) in loans to 5,013,219 women members in poor regions of India. Borrowers take loans for a range of income-generating activities, including livestock, agriculture, trade (such as vegetable vending), production (from basket weaving to pottery) and new age businesses (Beauty Parlor to photography). SKS also offers interest-free loans for emergencies as well as life insurance to its members. Its NGO wing SKS foundation runs the Ultra Poor Program. SKS currently has microfinance branches in 19 states across India. SKS aims to reach members 15 million by 2012. In the last year alone, SKS Microfinance has achieved nearly 170 % growth, with 99% on-time repayment rate.

Unitus – Unitus, an international nonprofit organization, fights global poverty by accelerating the growth of microfinance—small loans and other financial tools for self-empowerment—where it is needed most.

Whole Planet Foundation – Whole Planet Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization established by Whole Foods Market, provides grants to microfinance institutions in Latin America, Africa and Asia who in turn develop and offer microenterprise loan programs, training and other financial services to the self-employed poor.

Research Papers & Case Studies on Microfinance in India

• Microfinance in India: Sectoral issues and challenges (PDF)
• Is Microfinance Too Rigid? (PDF)
• The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation (PDF)
• Sustainability of Self-Help Groups in India-two analyses
• Assessing Social Performance of Microfinance Institutions in India
• Group Microfinance and Livelihoods Promotion Program: Analysis From Jharkhand, India
• Do microfinance programs help families insure consumption against illness? (PDF)
• Microfinance in India: Small, Ostensibly Rigid and Safe (PDF)
• The impact of microfinance on schooling decisions: Evidence from Hyderabad, India
• Urban Pulse—Urbanizing Microfinance: Examples from India (PDF)
• Microfinance: A Macroscopic Survey of the Impact of Indian Initiatives
• Micro finance and poverty reduction in India (A comparative study with Asian Countries) (PDF)

Photo Credit : mckaysavage@flickr

Thanks for inputs : mckaysavage & @adropofwisdom

Last updated: 1st Oct, 2009; Now arranged in alphabetical order

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