Over the past few years, Indian microfinance has witnessed unprecedented growth. In fiscal year 2006 alone, the number of new microfinance clients grew by an approximate 60% and the amount of total loans outstanding to microfinance clients grew by 81%. In addition, many microfinance institutions have begun to offer new products such as health and life insurance and to experiment with new technology such as mobile phones and point of sale devices.
Yet critical gaps remain in our knowledge of how to most efficiently deliver microfinance services and how microfinance can best be used as a tool to fight poverty. The Centre for Micro Finance (CMF) was established in 2005 to help fill these gaps. The mission of the Centre is to improve the accessibility and quality of financial services for the poor through rigorous research, knowledge dissemination and evidence-based policy for MFIs.
To achieve these objectives the Centre works in partnership with various MFIs in India, banks, investors, training institutions and several academic institutions in India and abroad, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Yale, Harvard, New York University (NYU) and Indian School of Business (ISB).
The Centre undertakes qualitative and quantitative research in four broad areas: (1) impact evaluation of credit and savings products, (2) microfinance “plus” (how to combine effectively microfinance with other development interventions and non financial services), (3) insurance and innovative products, and (4) sector wide and policy issues, such as regulations or the impact of competition.
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