Summary (English)

Description
Microfinance in India is at an inflexion point with new generation Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) and commercial banks driving scale rapidly. Innovation in terms of product designs, channel configurations and technology usage is rife in the Indian microfinance sector.
While the focus of microfinance in India has been largely on growing outreach, a need is increasingly being felt to evaluate existing interventions for impact and analyze program designs rigorously. If microfinance is to have an effective impact on the lives of the poor, practitioners need to better understand how financial products and services may be provided cost-effectively, and which programs work and which do not. CMF's research aims to catalyze and implement empirical research on the following issues: impact of access to financial services; contract and product designs; constraints to household productivity; combination of microfinance and other development interventions; cost and profitability of microfinance institutions (MFIs); people's behavior with respect to financial services; economics of micro-enterprises; effect of regulations. CMF is comprised of two complementary units: the Research Unit (RU) and the MFIs Strategy Unit (MSU). MSU, through its capacity building activities, helps CMF ensure that the results of its research activities are implemented properly on the ground.