India: Scaling Up Sustainable and Responsible Microfinance

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The objective of the Scaling up Sustainable and Responsible Microfinance Project for India is to scale up access to sustainable microfinance services to the financially excluded, particularly in under-served areas of India, through, among other things, introduction of innovative financial products and fostering transparency and responsible finance. There are three components to the project, the first component being scaling up funding support for Microfinance Institution (MFI). This component will provide funding for MFIs to scale up their operations. Funding from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to MFIs is to be structured as debt or quasi-equity to support their operations and growth, enhance their financial strength, and enable them to leverage and crowd in private commercial funds to on-lend larger amounts to the under-served. The second component is the strengthening responsible finance. This component will promote transparency and responsible microfinance through the development of an India microfinance platform. Finally, the third component is the capacity building and monitoring. This component will include support for a communication strategy to help ensure that benefits from this intervention are shared with the wider microfinance sector.