Is Microfinance (MF) taught in business schools in India?
It is not formally taught in any of the business schools in India. In the United States there is a post graduate diploma course in business management (MBA) specializing in microfinance. In India, ICICI has established a school of microfinance in Chennai, which is for their internal purposes where they give some training. TATAs have collaborated with DHAN Foundation to set up an educational institute in Madurai. Except these I don’t think there is any worthwhile educational institute specializing in Microfinance in India. When a bank starts microfinance initiative in a rural area, is the branch manager prepared for the challenges? No. The branch managers are not able to provide the training. Mostly the intermediaries like NGOs are performing that role. Like Spandana in Andhra Pradesh, Saadhan in Delhi or SEWA in Ahmedabad. These NGOs try to organize people in groups and train them. However, they are able to do it in a very limited scale. If 15 people are joining together to form a self