Survey of Access to Finance in Andhra Pradesh
CMF Research Associate: Sushmita Meka

Over the past few years, a sea change has occurred in the nature of financial services for the poor in India.  Microfinance has witnessed an explosion in popularity, with the total number of people served by MFIs or members of SHGs growing at greater than 50% every year.  Yet, as the last comprehensive survey on access to finance in India is now almost five years out of date, little is known about how the rapid expansion of microfinance has translated into access to finance on the ground, how the clients of the two main models of microfinance differ, what percentage of the poor are still not reached by microfinance even in high competition areas, and what characterizes the un-reached poor.  The Centre for Micro Finance seeks to conduct a comprehensive survey on access to finance in India to answer these, and other questions.