INTRODUCTION:

In the past years, there were no Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Mizoram which actively operated in Aizawl city by providing credit to abject poor people. Recently, the microfinance institution has been set up in Aizawl city to carry out its roles and responsibilities in the development of the region. However, the newly set up Microfinance Institution in the region is not able to carry out activities by providing loans, saving, insurance and remittances to absolute poor families so far. Some moneylenders are operating in the local market to which the borrowers deposit their jewelries as security for providing credits. With the existence of a large number of very poor people in Aizawl city of Mizoram, it is evident that the demand for microfinance is exceptionally high.

The poor people cannot access formal banking services and this forces them to borrow from the local moneylenders at very high interest rates (Roopali et.al, 2017). In India the government and Reserve Bank of India have been using microfinance as a means of poverty alleviation with credit support from the banking system. RBI and NABARD regulate the microfinance operations of the banking sector as part of their overall banking operation (Masal, 2013). Now, MFIs are finding it relatively easier to raise loan funds from banks since the policy change has come after the year 2000, when RBI allowed banks to lend to Microfinance Institutions and treat such lending as part of their priority sector funding obligations Private sector Banks have designed innovative products such as the Bank Partnership Model to fund MFIs and have started viewing the sector as a good business proposition (Rajesh et al, 2014). To that affect, the 27 existing banks in Aizawl city, Mizoram are delegated to provide financial services like giving small loans, savings, insurance and remittances.

Specifically there is lack of documented data about the performance of Microfinance in Aizawl city, Mizoram. The present study aims at evaluating the performance of scheduled commercial banks in Aizawl city since then. The study also focuses on important tasks of banks in providing financial services and financial products in the region. It is appropriate to study Aizawl city in which there is a total population of 293,416 which constitutes 26.89 percent of the total population of Mizoram State, India as per 2011 census (Statistical Hand Book Mizoram, 2018). Presently, there are 27 banks in Aizawl city.

Microfinance aims to make life better for living in poorest of the poor by reducing poverty, unemployment to attain social change. Ultimate goal of microfinance is to give low income people an opportunity to become self-sufficient by providing a means of saving money, borrowing money and insurance. Considering the large number of persons still living below the poverty line, there is no doubt that the resources used for poverty alleviation and provision of subsidies in the name of poor have not been much effective in achieving the goal of poverty alleviation (Tripathi, 2004). With this end in view, the central government envisaged various programmes to rural development for which the poor organized into self- help group (SHGs) and took up economic viable activities on their own with the support from the government subsidy and bank credit.

Legal and Regulatory Framework for the Microfinance Institutions in India:

Societies Registration Act, 1860:

NGOs are mostly registered under the Society Registration Act, 1860. Since these entities were established as voluntary, not-for-profit development organizations, their micro finance activities were also established under the same legal umbrella (Manish et al, 2010). The main purpose is:

(1) Relief of poverty

(2) Advancement of education

(3) Advancement of religion

(4) Purposes beneficial to the community or a section of the community.

Indian Trusts Act, 1882:

Since Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are registered under the Indian Trust Act, 1882 either as public charitable trusts or as private, determinable trusts with specified beneficiaries/members.

Not-for-profit Companies Registered under Section 25 of Companies Act, 1956:

An organization given a license under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956 is allowed to be promoting commerce, arts, science, religion, charity or any other useful object. For companies that are already registered under the Companies Act, 1956, if the central government is satisfied that the objects of that company are restricted to the promotion of commerce, science, art, religion, charity or any other useful purpose; and the constitution of such company provides for the application of funds or other income in promoting these objects and prohibits payment of any dividend to its members, then it may allow such a company to register under Section 25 of the Companies Act.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Roopali (2017) in his paper on, “Impact of Microfinance on Rural Development” (With special Reference to Gulbarga Division of Karnataka State) inferred that Gulbarga District had been in the fore front in the adoption of Microfinance operations. Microfinance created a fruitful atmosphere in the district. Traditional financial institutions were also playing a key role of credit provider to Self Help Groups.

Kumar, et.al. (2010) observed that the potential for growing microfinance institutions in India was very high. Major cross-section could have benefit if this sector would grow in its fastest pace. The loan outstanding would grow from 1600 crores to 42000 crores. Annual growth rate of about 20% could be achieved during the next five years.

Chandra (2014) in his article concluded that the Microfinance institutions were acting as a substitute to banks in areas where people didn’t have access to banks and providing a complete range of products would enable the poor to avail all services.

Vetrivel, et al. (2010) stated that the conventional finance institutions seldom lent down market to serve the needs of low-income families and women headed households. They were very often denied access to credit for any purpose, making the discussion of the level of interest rate and other terms of finance irrelevant. Therefore the fundamental problem was not so much of unaffordable terms of loan as the lack of access to credit itself.

Yadav (2014) in his paper concluded that Microfinance provided both savings and loan facilities. A Microfinance institution was likely to provide the much needed funds to the potential entrepreneurs of rural India. That microfinance could contribute to solving the problem of insufficient housing and rural services as an integral part of poverty alleviation programmes and empowered women to play a vital role in the society.

Study Area:

A research study was conducted in Aizawl city. Aizawl is the capital city of Mizoram. It comprises 26.89 per cent of the entire population of the state. In 2011, the population of Aizawl was 293,416 and the city was classified as a class I city as per the Census of India classification of urban centres (Saitluanga, 2017). Presently, there are 27 banks in Aizawl city. Hence, it is proper to undertake a research study on Microfinance performance in Aizawl city, Mizoram since the conventional banks are functioning as Microfinance Institutions by extending microloans to the poorest of the poor families in the region. The Microfinance Institutions have played a very important role in the development of rural economy by providing credit to absolute poor who have no access to traditional banking services. Since, there was no Microfinance Institution in Aizawl city for a long period of time, traditional banks used to be entrusted to provide credits to utter poor families for setting up tiny businesses. The city is administered by Aizawl Municipal Council (AMC). In 2011, there were 19 Municipal wards under the AMC which altogether comprised 82 Local Councils (LCs). These Local Councils, previously known as Village Councils (VCs) are the lowest administrative units. The percentage decadal growth rate of population during 2001-11 was 22.92 percent and the population density per sq km was 112. The average literacy is 97.89 percent of which the male and female literacy constituted 98.11 percent and 97.67 percent respectively. In this backdrop, the research study was conducted with some specified objectives:

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY:

The following specific objectives were laid down for this study.

1. To analyze the performance of selected banks and financial inclusions for vulnerable groups in the region/area.

2. To assess the banking activities as Microfinance service providers.

3. To evaluate the contributions of Microfinance as a means of poverty alleviation.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

This study is a descriptive paper based on secondary data. At the time of conducting the study, Aizawl is the most populous city in the state. Aizawl district having 12,668 BPL families out of 92,779 households which constituted 13.65 percent to the total households (BPL Baseline Survey 2016, Aizawl District, Mizoram Statistical Development Agency, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, p. iv). The number of scheduled commercial banks in Aizawl City was 27. Out of the 27 banks, 15 banks were randomly selected for the study. Since there was no documented data about the performance of Microfinance in Aizawl city, the records of loan disbursement of scheduled commercial banks, regional rural bank and co-operative bank were used to highlight the activities of Microfinance Institutions. In order to know the performance of selected banks in Aizawl city, secondary data on deposits and advances to priority sectors and non-priority sectors were collected mainly from SLBC (State Level Bankers’ Committee) Meeting for Mizoram-2016 and 2019 and published public reports and documents found in Economic Survey 2015-16 to 2017-18, Government of Mizoram, and Statistical Abstract of Mizoram: 2017 and Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Mizoram and from other scholarly articles and journals.

The elements of priority sectors such as agricultural loan, industrial loan and services sector loan were selected as indicators for the analysis of the performance of banks in Aizawl city and were analyzed to quantify relative variations therein. The indicators of development of performance were identified on the basis of relative contribution in extending loans to priority sectors. Data collected were analyzed in terms of percentage.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Table-1: Bank Deposits, Advance and Credit-Deposit Ratio of Scheduled Commercial Banks (Rs. in Lakhs)

Sl. No.	Year	Deposits	Advances	Credit/Deposit Ratio
1.	2013-14	5099.11	2232.8	43.79
2.	2014-15	5678.99	2545.88	44.83
3.	2015-16	6423.55	2838.04	54.14
4.	2016-17	7902.44	3151.12	39.88
Total		20,004.98	8,535.04	42.66

Source: State Level Bankers’ Committee Meeting for Mizoram, 2017

The credit-deposit ratio indicates how much of a bank’s core funds are being used for lending, the main banking activity. The available data from Table-1 shows that the cash deposit in the banks was increased from Rs.5,099.11 lakhs for the year 2013-14 to Rs.7,902.44 lakhs for the year 2016-17 which accounted for 55 percent increase in cash deposits in the bank during the period. Corresponding to this, the loan disbursed was increased from Rs.2,232.80 lakhs to Rs.3,151.12 lakhs registering at 41.13 percent during the same period. Further, it could be observed that the total amount of deposits was Rs.20,004.98 lakhs and the total outstanding loan disbursed was Rs.8,535.04 lakhs during 2013-17 and that the credit-deposit ratio was 42.66 percent during the period taken into consideration.

The data revealed that the loan disbursed did not match with that of the cash deposits into the banks. This indicated that the growth and development of small enterprises slowed down in the region. This shows that the overall achievement is very low when considering the Target (given in Table-5). The mainstream Institutional players are not provided financial services and products to vulnerable groups to meet the credit requirement. The financial inclusion is not implemented by striving to remove the barriers that exclude people from participating in the financial sector and using these services to improve their lives. The World Bank estimates 1.7 billion adults still lack access bank account (Mitchell et al 2019). The performance bank-wise during 2016-17 is shown below:

Table-2: The Performance of Banks 2016-2017 (Rs. in lakhs)

Sl. No.	Name of Bank	Deposits	Advances	Credit/ Deposit Ratio
1	Bank of Baroda (BOM)	18.37	5.32	30.05
2	Bank of India (BOI)	28.76	14.61	50.8
3	Bank of Maharashtra (BOM)	4.28	4.34	101.59
4	Canara Bank	20.12	42.47	211.1
5	Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI)	172.45	56.87	32.98
6	Bandhan Bank	33.45	10.84	32.4
7	Indian Overseas Bank	6.24	4.88	78.3
8	Panjab National Bank (PNB)	29	41	141.38
9	Panjab and Sind Bank	1.42	1.55	109.47
10	United Bank of India (UBI)	112.56	49.44	43.93
11	State Bank of India (SBI)	3,739.00	1,155	30.89
12	UCO Bank	97.47	56.03	57.49
13	Mizoram Co-op Apex Bank Ltd.	724.06	423.08	58.43
14	Mizoram Rural Bank (MRB)	1,824.44	954.43	52.31
15	Mizoram Urban Co-op Development Bank Ltd. (MUCO)	50.51	32.27	63.9
Total		6,800.42	2,974.75	43.74

Source: State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), Mizoram, 2017

Table-3: Loan Disbursed under Priority and Non-Priority Sectors (Rs.in lakhs)

Sl. No.	Year	Agriculture	Industries	Services	Non-Priority	Total
1	2012-13	13,068.32	3,559.99	20,313.43	20,356.53	57,298.27
2	2013-14	6,507.50	4,855.00	17,610.50	17,210.86	46,183.86
3	2014-15	8,271.86	8,459.83	34,006.11	23,200.49	73,938.29
4	2015-16	9,974.61	11,996.35	41,020.65	40,189.15	103,180.76
5	2016-17	10,353.81	24,593.09	44,977.71	46,951.36	126,875.97
Total		48,176.10	53,464.26	1,57,928.40	1,47,908.39	4,07,477.15

Source: State Level Bankers’ Committee Meeting for Mizoram, 2017

Table-4: Bank-wise Loan Disbursed under Priority and Non-Priority Sectors 2016-2017 (Rs.in lakhs)

Sl. No.	Name of Bank	Agriculture	Industries	Services	Non-Priority	Total
1.	Bank of Baroda (BOM)	45	122	191	197	555
2.	Bank of India (BOI)	36.00	1,235.00	0.00	214	1485
3.	Bank of Maharashtra (BOM)	0.00	20.45	68.06	33.6	122.11
4.	Canara Bank	176.94	1,015.44	318	117	1,627.38
5.	Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI)	166.18	462.92	718.19	120.99	1,468.28
6.	Bandhan Bank	349.79	609.56	124.65	130.26	1,214.26
7.	Indian Overseas Bank	1.66	259.01	167.25	62.95	490.87
8.	Panjab National Bank (PNB)	31.16	147.55	148.79	177.83	505.33
9.	Panjab and Sind Bank	0.00	0.00	1.00	0	1
10.	United Bank of India (UBI)	291.21	1,755.88	1,997.49	579.26	4,623.84
11.	State Bank of India (SBI)	2,703.48	10,512.25	6,410.95	25,785.88	45,412.56
12.	UCO Bank	265.11	282.75	789.21	150	1,487.07
13.	Mizoram Co-op Apex Bank Ltd.	1,485.62	696.95	5,283.31	3,213.76	10,679.64
14.	Mizoram Rural Bank (MRB)	3,939.66	2,383.79	14,585.76	11,770.93	32,680.14
15.	Mizoram Urban Co-op Development Bank Ltd. (MUCO)	17.60	14.00	522.55	483.55	1,037.70
Total		9,159.62	18,943.99	38,202.56	42,906.75	1,09,176.92

Source: State Level Bankers’ Committee Meeting for Mizoram, 2017

The bank’s main activity is to disburse loans to the needy people. Table-4 also shows that the vulnerable poor beneficiaries of agricultural loan and industrial loan etc. will be improved the viable economic activities for eradication of poverty through increased income. The data from the Table-4 also revealed that the Mizoram Rural Bank (MRB) disbursed the largest amount of loan that is, Rs.3,939.66 lakhs to agriculture which accounted for 12.05 percent of the total loan disbursed during 2016-17. This is followed by Mizoram Co-op Apex Bank Ltd. which disbursed loan amounting to Rs.1485.62 lakhs during the same time which recorded at 13.91 percent of the total outstanding loan disbursed. Further, the State Bank of India (SBI) disbursed loan amounting to Rs.2703.48 lakhs which accounted to 5.95 percent of the total outstanding loan disbursed during the period taken into account. The selected 15 banks’ total outstanding loan disbursed to agriculture was Rs.9159.62 lakhs which registered 8.38 percent of the total of 15 selected banks’ loan disbursed during the year 2016-17. The data revealed that the formal scheduled commercial banks played a vital role in credit delivering system to small entrepreneurs in Aizawl city.

Traditionally, the formal banking Institutions in India have been serving only the needs of the commercial sector and providing loans for middle and upper income groups (Vetrivel et al., 2010). As regards to formal financial institutions, there are scheduled commercial banks such as Mizoram Rural Bank (MRB), Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), Panjab and Sind Bank, United Bank of India (UBI), Cooperative Banks and State Bank of India.

Regarding the cooperative structures, the Urban Cooperative Bank (UCB), Mizoram Co-operative Apex Bank (MCAB), Mizoram Urban Co-operative Development Bank Ltd. (MUCO) are the primary co-operative financial institutions operating in Aizawl city. The Head Office of Mizoram Co-operative Apex Bank (MCAB), is located in Aizawl with over 15 branches spread in different parts of Mizoram. Their total outstanding loan disbursed in 2016-17 was reported to be Rs.423.08 lakhs with deposits worth Rs.724.06 lakhs. Meanwhile, the loan disbursed to agriculture was Rs.1,485.62 lakhs, industry Rs.696.95 lakhs, service sectors Rs.5,283.31 lakhs, and to non-priority sectors Rs.3,213.76 lakhs. The overall loan disbursed in 2016-17 to priority sectors and non-priority sectors was Rs. 10,679.64 lakhs.

Likewise, there are 84 branches of Mizoram Rural Bank with its Headquarters at Aizawl and their total outstanding lending in 2016-17 was Rs.954.43 against the total deposits of Rs. 1824.44 lakhs. The total loan disbursed to priority sectors and non-priority sectors was Rs.32, 680.14 lakhs during the same year 2016-17.

For the purpose of implementation of loans under various governmental schemes, banks collaborate with NGOs like Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) (Mizo Women Association), Young Mizo Association (YMA) which is the largest NGO in Mizoram and Self Help Groups (SHGs). Such NGOs act as coordinating agencies. The security for the loan is generally the mortgage of the property being financed.

The performance of the formal banking institutions is regulated by the government which has taken several steps to strengthen the rural credit system. The rural branch network of commercial banks have been expanded and certain policy prescriptions are imposed in order to ensure greater flow of credit to agriculture and other preferred sectors. The commercial banks are to ensure that 40% of total credit is provided to the priority sectors out of which 18% in the form of direct finance to agriculture and 25% to priority sector in favour of weaker sections besides maintaining a credit deposit ratio of 60% in rural and semi urban branches (Vetrivel et al., 2010). Further the IRDP introduced in 1979 ensures supply of credit and subsidies to weaker section beneficiaries. Although these measures have helped in widening the access of rural households to institutional credit, vast majority of the rural poor have still not been covered. The utter poor people have very low access to formal financial institutions in the region (Manish et al., 2010).

While the State owned Mizoram Co-operative Apex Bank’s (MCAB) total loan disbursed in 2016-17 to agriculture is merely 13.91 percent of the total loan disbursed, it is 6.52 percent for industry and the services sector accounted for 49.47 percent and non-priority sectors constituted 30.09 percent. The performance of Mizoram Rural Bank on loan disbursing in 2016-17 to agriculture accounted for 12.05 percent, industry constituted 7.29 percent, service sector recorded at 44.63 percent and that of non-priority sectors registered at 36.01 percent. It could be observed that even the state owned bank and regional rural bank could not realize the minimum required percentage to disburse loans in favour of economically weaker sections of the society. In fact, it is very difficult to link abject poverty families or women-headed households to formal financial system, whatever the mechanism may be, if the goal of poverty alleviation has to be achieved (Vetrivel, 2010).

Bandhan is the first bank set up in eastern part of India after Independence. Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd. is owned by Bandhan Financial Services Limited (BFSL), the largest micro finance organization in India. Its public shareholders include International Finance Corporation (IFC) FIG Investment Company, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Caladium Investment Pvt. Ltd. and a few individuals.

Bandhan Bank had 385 branches and loan outstanding was millions of Rs.3,389 and the number of borrowers of utter poor families was about 851.713 in India during 2009-10 (Ramesh, 2014). In Aizawl branch, Bandhan Bank had deposits of Rs.33.45 lakhs and the outstanding loan disbursed was Rs.10.84 lakhs and corresponding to this, the credit-deposit ratio accounted for 32.40% during the year 2016-17 in the area of Aizawl city (given in Table-2). In the meantime, the Bandhan Bank disbursed Rs.349.79 lakhs as loans to agriculture, Rs.609.56 lakhs to industry, Rs.124.65 lakhs to services sector and Rs.130.26 to non-priority sectors during the same year. The overall outstanding loan disbursed in 2016-17 was Rs.1,214.26 lakhs in the region of Aizawl city. These show that the Microfinance Institutions play a significant role in reducing poverty in the region.

The various government sponsored schemes are implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development, GOI. These schemes are focused on promotion of self-employment and organization of rural and urban poor. The details of lending towards government sponsored scheme is presented in Table-5 below:

Table-5: Lending towards Govt. Sponsored Scheme, 2018

Scheme	Target Nos.	Achievement	Amount (in lakhs)
DAY-NRLM	2308	339	505.18
DAY-NULM SEP-Indv.	400	162	183.91
DAY-NULM SEP-Group	100	12	42.3
DAY-NULM GHG Bank L’kage	300	37	71.5
MUDRA (Sishu)		1094	508.51
MUDRA (Kishore)		1594	4123.54
MUDRA (Tarun)		462	3717
Stand-up India		81	1514.9
PMEGP	818	487	1003.58
Total:	3926	4268	11670.42

Source: State Level Bankers’ Committee, Mizoram, 2019 pp.108

It could be observed from Table-5 that the total outstanding loan disbursed under the various government sponsored scheme as method of poverty alleviation was Rs.11670.42 lakhs upto December 2018. The overall achievement is very low when compared to target. Meanwhile, it was reiterated that these are one of the best schemes that the government has brought out for the poor people as such the banks should sanction such loans for the larger benefit of the utter poor while considering it as the banks’ obligation to vulnerable groups of the society.

CONCLUSION AND FINDING:

The invaluable performance of commercial banks can be learnt from their financial services and the financial products. The very poor families are willing to avail loans from the formal financial institutions although accessibility to formal banking system is so difficult. Giving loans to poor families is highly risky since they are not able to repay the outstanding loans being borrowed from the banks to start-up micro-enterprises. So, default rates are extremely high. Microfinance should provide both savings and loan facilities (Vetrivel, 2010). Hence, it would be ideal to enhance credit worthiness of the poor and to make them more ‘bankable’ to financial institutions and enable them to qualify for long-term credit from the formal sector. The microfinance has a lot to contribute towards building financial discipline and educating borrowers about repayment requirement.

Financial inclusion is ensuring access to financial product and services needed by vulnerable groups at an affordable cost. The empirical finding states that the mainstream financial players do not realize the financial inclusion in the region. Since majority of poor people are unbanked with no saving accounts with commercial banks and even though some of the poor people running profitable enterprises in addition to microfinance income is a matter of great concern for local economic development.

Every bank branch should have a microfinance section/division to enable financial inclusion. Effectiveness and responsiveness of Self Help Groups (SHGs) is obvious in availing loans from formal banks and delivering credit to its members for local economic development to earn income to poverty alleviation. Thus, the study has shown that there has been positive correlation between the banking network and microfinance by delivering micro-credits to utter poor families especially women-headed households to start-up and expand micro-businesses.

The empirical study has shown that a number of Government sponsored Schemes were implemented through the scheduled commercial banks (public, private, regional rural bank and cooperative bank) such as DAY-NRLM, DAY-NLUM etc. (given in table-5). This indicated that provide micro finance services in addition to their general banking activities as micro finance service provider. Although, the overall achievement is very low when compare to target. Meanwhile, these are one of the best schemes that the government has brought out for the abject poor families and women-headed households as such the banks should sanction such loan for the larger benefit of the utter poor while considering it as the banks’ obligation to vulnerable groups of the society.

The formal financial institutions are playing a significant role in disbursing loans to agriculture and allied activities, micro and small enterprises, poor people for housing and weaker sections. The study states that the bank provides banking and related services which has evolved into a model Microfinance Institution as means of poverty alleviation in the region. The majority of vulnerable poor are more dependent on agriculture for sustainable livelihood so microfinance is a tool to assist the poor to work their way out of poverty. The contribution of Microfinance to start-up and expand micro-enterprises through lending of public and private commercial banks, regional rural banks and co-operative banks will definitely enhance the profitable economic activities and serve as a method of poverty alleviation in the area of Aizawl city.

REFERENCE:

1. BPL Baseline Survey (2016), Aizawl District, Mizoram Statistical Development Agency, Directorate of Economics and Statistics.

2. Chandra, Ramesh (2014). Role of Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) in Rural Development Through SHG-Bank Linkage Programmes (SBLP). International Research Journal of Commerce Arts and Science, 5(12) pp.99-106.

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7. Mizoram State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) 2016- 17 and 2018-19.

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12. Yadav, R. K. (2014). Significance of Microfinance Institutions in Rural Development of India. International Letter of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 21, pp. 84-90. Available online on doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.21.84. Accessed on 20^th August, 2019.

Received on 21.08.2020 Modified on 12.10.2020

Asian Journal of Management. 2021; 12(2):120-126.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5763.2021.00018