SHGs should balance or break
In the words of NABARD, “internal savings mobilized by its members is the core of the SHG”. Banks size their loans to SHGs as a multiple of the savings accumulated. Strangely though, it is not routine for banks to verify SHG balance sheets before lending. Few SHGs try to balance their books, and even fewer have provisions for audits. In the SHG-bank linkage model, the size of bank loans is determined by the size of the SHG corpus, more than by any other single factor. As a result, SHGs face very strong systemic incentives to neglect errors that overstate their collective savings or understate losses.
Jul 16, 2019
The Andhra Pradesh Crisis: Clients’ Perspective
This Note focuses exclusively on clients’ perspectives, before and after the crisis, gathered by the MicroSave team at various points of time, across Andhra Pradesh after the crisis broke in October 2010.
Jan 7, 2011
Relative risk to the savings of the poor in Tamil Nadu
In order to understand how poor people save and the relative risks involved, MicroSave conducted a study in three different Indian states – Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu this past year. This paper focuses on Tamil Nadu.
Jan 5, 2011
Alphina Jos, Minakshi Ramji, Shivshankar V and Stanley Thomas
SHG Audit – A Field Balance Sheet Approach
This note details the pioneering “Field Balance Sheet Approach” towards auditing SHGs. It provides a step by step process for conducting the audit as well as explores the benefits.
Nov 4, 2010
Who Says You Can’t Do Micro Savings in India? Part 4: Practical Next Steps
This note attempts to provide an insight about the practical and real solutions most MFIs, SHGs cooperatives etc can take in order to provide market led micro savings.
Jul 23, 2010
Who Says You Can’t Do Micro Savings in India? Part 1: Community-Based/Owned
This note attempts to provide a brief profile, of some of the micro savings options provided by informal and community-based/owned methods.
Jul 7, 2010
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