> Posted by Michelle Romeu
Everyone’s talking about the microfinance crisis in Andhra Pradesh, and the blogosphere is no exception. Be sure to check out these noteworthy posts from the last couple of weeks.
- A good place to start making sense of the recent happenings in Andhra Pradesh is with David Roodman’s detailed backgrounder that provides context and poses important questions.
- In the wake of the crisis, Beth Rhyne’s Huffington Post piece analyzes the role played by Indian policymakers and explores how current policies aimed at supporting microfinance growth may lie at the heart of this crisis.
- Sanjay Sinha, Managing Director of M-CRIL, offers further analysis, via Microfinance Focus’s blog, on how allowing NBFCs to provide deposits can be the right solution for regulators seeking to avoid another Andhra Pradesh crisis.
- In the Harvard Business Review, Barbara Kiviat and Jonathan Morduch ask: Is microfinance the new subprime? Although they admit that there are similarities between today’s microfinance in India and the U.S.’s pre-crisis subprime mortgage market, they also argue that the most obvious comparisons are not always the best ones.
- On Candid Unheard Voice of Indian Microfinance, Ramesh S. Arunachalam’s post brings coercion in repayment to light. He provides a sampling of testimonies from clients who were affected by coercive repayment tactics, as well as several different coercive strategies that are commonly used.
- Finally, what do the numbers say about the culprit behind the trouble in Andhra Pradesh? Justin Oliver’s post on CGAP’s microfinance blog kicks off a series focusing on microfinance in India.
Flickr credit: G’s memories