Human Resource Management in Indian Microfinance Institutions

A Brief Overview Of Microfinance

United Nations Millennium Goals state that by 2015 the number of people living in extreme poverty should be half of what it was in 2000 (World Bank, 2000). Over the time researchers have shown that those underprivileged are creditworthy (Ahmed et al., 2006; Coleman, 2006; Hiatt and Woodworth, 2006). Microfinance has established itself as an integral part of financial sector policies of emerging and developing countries in the past decade for underprivileged population. Microfinance spans a range of financial instruments including credit, savings, insurance, mortgages, and retirement plans, all of which are denominated in small amounts, making them accessible to individuals previously shut out from formal means of borrowing and saving. The majority of microfinance is aimed at the estimated 2.8 billion people who live on less than $2 a day in the developing world.