In a country like India where 70 percent of its population lives in rural area and 60 percent depend on agriculture (according to the World Bank reports), micro-finance can play a vital role in providing financial services to the poor and low income individuals. Microfinance is the form of a broad range of financial services such as deposits, loans, payment services, money transfers, insurance, savings, micro-credit etc. to the poor and low income individuals. The importance of micro-finance in the developing economies like India cannot be undermined, where a large size of population is living under poverty and large number of people does not have an access to formal banking facilities. The taskforce on Supportive Policy and Regulatory Framework for Microfinance constituted by NABARD defined microfinance as “ the provision of thrift, saving, credit and financial services and products of very small amount to the poor’s in rural, semi urban and urban areas for enabling them to raise their income level and improve their standard of living.” (Sen, 2008) Micro-finance is regarded as a useful tool for socio-economic up-liftmen in a developing country like India. It is expected to play a significant role in poverty alleviation and development. There are two broad approaches that characterize the microfinance sector in India is Self Help Groups (SHGs)-Bank linkage programme and Microfinance Institution (MFIs). In India microfinance is dominated by Self Help Groups (SHGs)-Bank linkage programme aimed at providing a cost effective mechanism for providing financial services to the unreached poor. The present paper aims at identifying the current status and role of microfinance in the development of India.

Keywords: Microfinance; SHGs, MFIs; Status and Growth of Microfinance