ABSTRACT
Trying to tell the story of how microfinance was ushered in, took roots and expanded in India is no mean task. Over the past two decades since its official debut in the country in the late 1980s microfinance has traversed quite an eventful journey. Along the course, its role and relevance has been contested seriously in the circles of academia and development practice. It has been over-hyped for what it has done and severely under-rated for what it could have. It has been interpreted and examined in myriad ways — as an antipoverty strategy, as an approach to empower women, as a method for financial inclusion and as a way to nurture interaction between formal-informal financial sectors. The debates on Indian microfinance reflect the myriad imaginations and perceptions that surround its identity. Despite such inconclusive discourses, the reach of microfinance has expanded substantially across the country appropriating the spaces available within development planning and democratic politics.
