Tamil Nadu has become the second largest state after Andhra Pradesh in the self-help group (SHG)-bank linkage programme launched by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). In the state, 209,197 SHGs were credit linked with a financial assistance of Rs 2,791.65 crore in 2009-10, taking the cumulative number of SHGs credit linked to 852,791 (including repeat doses) with a bank loan of Rs 9,394.70 crore. Nabard said that a...

Two months after the crisis in the microfinance industry broke out, resulting in the possibility of bank loans to the sector becoming non-performing, the government now wants to do a reality check. Last evening, the finance ministry dashed off a letter to public sector banks, Small Industries Development Bank of India and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, asking them to furnish data on how much exposure they have to...