(Conference participants viewing first technical session, Pune 2009)

The Centre for Micro Finance (CMF) in partnership with the College of Agricultural Banking – Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Pune, organized a conference on microfinance for January 16-17th 2009. Researchers, practitioners and bankers shared results from various experiments they have conducted that have led or could lead to improvements in microfinance programmes or policies. The conference provided a platform for microfinance practitioners, bankers and policy makers involved in the sector to learn from field experiments, discuss policy implications and develop a complementary policy framework. 70+ participants attended, including heads of microfinance institutions, senior-level public sector bank officials and chief general managers (CGMs) from RBI.

Learn about the conference sessions by downloading powerpoints, notes and other materials from the conference below:

Session I: Enhancing the Impact of Micro Credit
• The impact of microfinance: Spandana program evaluation (Justin Oliver, Executive Director of CMF)
• Enhancing impact of microfinance (Frances Sinha, Director of EDA Rural Systems)

Session II: Financial Inclusion
• No frills accounts in Cuddalore district (Jayaram Venkatesan, CMF Research Consultant) [Summary]
• Financial inclusion drive: Finding usage in access in Gulbarga (Minakshi Ramji, CMF Research Associate) [Summary]
• The innovation hypothesis (Sanjay Bhargava, Executive Chairman of Eko Financial Services)

Session III: Optimizing Microfinance Distribution Channels
• Results from CMF weather insurance study (Prof. Chattopadhyay, IIM-Calcutta) [Summary]
• Results from CMF treated bednets study (Dan Kopf, CMF Research Associate) [Summary]

Session IV: Financial Literacy
• How do microfinance clients understand their loans? (Minakshi Ramji, CMF Research Associate)[Summary]
• Financial inclusion and credit counseling (S.P. Singh, Punjab National Bank)

Session V: Emerging Issues in Microfinance
• The current financial crisis - How it affects the sector (Basil Sheikh, RBI Chief General Manager)
• Rethinking branchless banking in India (Doug Johnson, CMF Research Associate) [Summary]
• Microfinance in India: Small, ostenibly rigid and safe (Prof. Kamath, IIM-Bangalore)
• The future of the SHG-Bank linkage programme (Sukhbir Singh, NABARD Chief General Manager)