A LITERATURE REVIEW ON THE CONTRIBUTION OF MICROFINANCE INDUSTRY IN LEVERAGING THE ECONOMIC STANDARD OF SOCIETY

Abstract

In the growth of any nation, inclusive development is one of the most crucial elements. Financial involvement has become an imperative objective in the reforms of major policies and becoming a way of providing economical benefits to untapped and underprivileged domains existing in our society. Microfinance is considered as an effective tool to deal with the problem of poverty, income inequalities and unemployment. In India, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) lending started big way in mid 90s with a suitable adaptation of Grameen model where the core continued to thrive on the reliance of creditworthiness of poor people by leveraging their social collateral. The success of the model, industry or institution has always been around customer centricity. Starting in a humble way by extending tiny loans to economically underprivileged households, the industry has earned the recognition of being instrumental in inclusive financing and fuelling the growth at bottom of the pyramid. This study is focused toward discussing about the influence created by micro-banking system on the economic scenario of the society. Furthermore, the reason for this study also includes the curiosity to know and understand the trend of Microfinance during the years 2009-2019, specifically for underprivileged section of the society. The information needed for the research has been acquired with the help of various articles, research journals and reports related to different segments of microfinance industry. Some of the relevant research works done in the segment of micro-banking focussing primarily on the period of 2009-2019 have been analyzed for the same purpose.