The plan has received positive feelers from Canara Bank, which, along with others, will together hold 49 per cent. The MFI will be set up with a capital of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion).
The Micro Finance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2012, is currently being scrutinised by a Parliamentary Standing Committee.
The year 2010 was a tumultuous one for micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in India.
The KAS Foundation is touching the lives of 700,000 people.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has announced that Input Tax Credit (ITC) will now be available on health and life insurance policies provided by employers to their employees, a move expected to significantly reduce costs for businesses, especially MSMEs.
Anup Saha, currently a Wholetime Director at Kotak Mahindra Bank, has been appointed as the new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for a three-year term, effective January 1, 2027, with the Reserve Bank of India's approval.
L&T Finance reported a robust Q1FY27 with net profit growing 29% year-on-year to 900 crore, driven by strong asset growth and strategic initiatives including accelerating cross-selling, improving productivity, and fostering a technology-first, AI-led culture, alongside significant expansion in gold loans.
India's MSME sector faces a significant formal credit gap of approximately Rs 60 lakh crore, with traditional channels meeting only a fraction of the demand. A new report suggests that a centralised, interoperable digital layer could effectively bridge this gap and enhance productivity across the formal business sector by digitising workflows and enabling cash-flow-based underwriting.
The government has released the draft Micro Financial Sector (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2011, which seeks to make it mandatory for all microfinance institutions to be registered with the Reserve Bank of India, making it the sector regulator.
'This micro-finance sector has seen a tremendous upsurge in the recent time. There is a huge potential in this domain'.
'Improved law and order and transparent governance have helped change UP's investment image.'
Despite near gender parity in basic bank account ownership, women in India remain significantly underrepresented in the growing platform economy due to gaps in digital financial capability and access to credit, according to a joint report by the International Labour Organization and National Council of Applied Economic Research.
Brokerages were divided on Bajaj Finance after its 2025-26 (FY26) third-quarter (October-December/ Q3) results, with a few raising targets on valuation comfort, while others flagged concerns over the credit cost trajectory.
Any initiative backed by a political institution and intention, would not achieve the desired result of serving the common man. The pre-condition of success is its management by a private entity with ownership shared between the promoters and the common people.
Citigroup India on Thursday announced a $3.5 million grant to the Indian School of Micro Finance to be set up in Ahmedabad.
The government and the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority mooted a 'micro-insurance' scheme and asked insurers to collaborate with non-governmental organisations.
'You have seen the retrenchments by big corporates in the IT industry because they are not getting enough offers.' 'MSMEs in the manufacturing sector are really struggling. They do not know what to do. They are not able to predict what will happen tomorrow.'
Forbes magazine has honoured Bandhan of being the world's largest micro finance institute.
Even if there is an early agreement on a cessation of hostilities in West Asia, the price shock will not go away easily, points out A K Bhattacharya.
The Reserve Bank of India's 2024 norms for the voluntary conversion of Small Finance Banks (SFBs) into universal banks, particularly the subjective 'diversified loan portfolio' criterion, are proving to be a significant hurdle, with Ujjivan SFB and Jana SFB having their applications returned.
'The dakiyas will be our partners, receiving credit proposals from micro-enterprises at the grassroots level.'
Credit Information Bureau India Limited has entered into an agreement with 31 leading micro finance institutions to set up a credit information bureau for MFIs.
As bank loans to MFIs are mostly unsecured, the Indian Banks Association had requested RBI in December to relax its restructuring guidelines for the MFI sector.
'Credit growth in India remains in double digits, even though corporate borrowing is subdued.' 'Corporate credit is weak because companies are cash-rich and cautious amid global uncertainty.'
After micro finance, micro housing is becoming a buzz word. The sector is not only attracting domestic companies, but also luring foreign financial service firms and institutional players.
Pranab Mukherjee said the government proposes to move various legislative Bills related to financial sector reforms.
Leading non-banking financial company (NBFC) Shriram Finance on Friday said Japan-based MUFG Bank would invest Rs 39,618 crore, or $4.4 billion, to acquire a 20 per cent stake on a fully diluted basis through a preferential issue of equity shares.
This is the first Budget in my memory of Budgets over the last half a century which has embraced upfront, enthusiastically and emphatically, technology, modernity and fiscal sobriety, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
There are allegations that MFIs are charging exorbitant interest rates and using strong-arm tactics to recover the loans.
He added however that reasonable profit must be there at the bottom of the pyramid as the business has to be self-sustaining
The Union Budget for 2026-27, presented by Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday, which was a first, had an excellent domestic macro backdrop. According to the first advance estimates, gross domestic product (GDP) in constant prices is projected to grow 7.4 per cent in the current financial year, against 6.5 per cent in 2024-25.
Customs regimes can lead to labyrinthine legal disputes. Budget 2026 must recognise that an excessively defensive Customs posture can itself become a trade barrier, point out Mukesh Butani and Shankey Agrawal.
The finance ministry is not in favour of revising norms for external commercial borrowing or hiking the limits beyond $500 million in the near future, but will allow micro-finance institutions to tap overseas markets to raise up to $5 million.
Restoring weighted tax deductions and adopting a petty patents regime can foster firm-level innovative activity critical for competitiveness, points out Nagesh Kumar.
MUDRA Bank will have a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore.
The government is set to ask PSBs to expeditiously introduce repo-rate linked products "to step up affordable credit".
This was perhaps a missed opportunity for India to spotlight a core domestic challenge: The scale of workforce preparation required for a young, populous, rapidly growing country seeking to reach net zero, points out Radha Roy Biswas.
'The tools of warfare are changing. The MoD must deepen its engagement with technology thinkers that can present compelling visions of where warfare may be heading.'
Investors are shying away from securitised loans of micro-finance institutions (MFIs), as the ordinance issued by the Andhra Pradesh government has slowed recoveries, creating uncertainty around the underlying portfolio.
