The year 2010 was a tumultuous one for micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in India. It began with the highly successful SKS Microfinance public issue, which prompted other prominent MFIs to announce similar plans. It ended with the tumult in Andhra Pradesh which was marked by the state’s legislation to regulate the sector, severely impairing its ability to survive. MFI recoveries are down and they, in turn, have fallen behind in their...

Over the past decade, as crops have failed year after year, 200,000 farmers have killed themselves Naryamaswamy Naik went to the cupboard and took out a tin of pesticide. Then he stood before his wife and children and drank it. "I don't know how much he had borrowed. I asked him, but he wouldn't say," Sugali Nagamma said, her tiny grandson playing at her feet. "I'd tell him: don't worry, we...

On December 15, the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly cleared a bill to regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the state. The bill replaces an ordinance issued in October following 54 Suicide deaths allegedly due to coercive methods of loan recovery by MFIs (see ‘Death by Default’, Down To Earth, November 30, 2010). The bill mandates MFIs to be registered with the district authority to collect installments at the panchayat office and restricts...

Prof M.S. Swaminathan, the father of Green Revolution and Chairman of National Commission on Farmers (NCF) that called for revamp of policies to revitalise agriculture, says agricultural sector in India is entering a state of serious crisis. Quoting figures from National Sample Survey Organisation, he says half of the farmers in the country want to quit farming. Prof Swaminathan, who was here to deliver the Convocation Address at the Acharya N.G....

Since the beginning of December last, 220 tenant farmers in the state have committed Suicide or died of shock, crushed by mounting debts and loss of crops. Overall, the farmer death toll stands at a staggering 350-400. Though the fickle weather wreaked havoc, experts believe it's only partly to blame as several other factors have worked against the farming community. While economic expansion continues to bypass the farming community leaving...