Progress of Microfinance and Financial Inclusion “A Critical Analysis of SHG-Bank Linkage Program in India”

Amidst the well-known facts, there is a considerable disparity between India and Bharat. Whereas India is leaping high towards advancement, Bharat is retreating with a big chunk of the population still poor and under privileged both socially and economically. Microfinance has been introduced and promoted to bridge this gap and it has been successful to a great extent. This paper examines the progress of microfinance in terms of the successes and failures of SHG-bank linkage program. SHG- bank linkage program has been analyzed critically in this paper to assess its contribution towards removing the disparities prevailing in various regions of the country. An attempt has been made to find out that whether this program has reduced regional disparities or has it itself became prey to regional imbalances. The first half analyzes the trends in the scheduled commercial banks, and the latter half gives an account of SHG-bank linkage program.