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7 Ps of Microfinance in Rural India:

Product:

A savings-led approach the organization focuses on building clients' savings first, and onlyissues credit that is secured against a client's future or past savings. This is notable, as offering a

flexible savings product has long been one of the main challenges facing microfinance

institutions worldwide.

Using technology based solutions to process loan information Low cost ATMs to suit the microfinance market and eliminate the problem of conducting

financial transactions in remote rural areas. These machines use finger regocnition, smart card,

multi lingual voice technology to help the illiterate population in rural India.

Price:

Place: The distribution of microfinance services will happen at two levels:

a.Promotion: The microfinance services depend on effective promotional measures. In a country like

India, the rate of illiteracy is very high and the rural economy has dominance in the national economy. It

is essential to have both personal and impersonal promotion strategies. Television & radio ads will have

a good impact as they have a wide reach even in rural India. Educating the people about importance of

savings and other financial services in local languages will create awareness about the MFI and its

services. Incentives provided to the grass root level representatives is an impersonal tool to promote the

microfinance service provided by the institution. Arranging Kirtans, exhibitions, participation in fairs and

festivals, rural wall paintings and publicity drive through the mobile publicity van units would be

effective in creating visibility and the rural prospects could become clients.

Physical Evidence:

Signage which includes logos, punch lines of MFIs which the target audience will identify the MFIwith.

PDAs or other gadgets to feed in real time data A central MIS system Collaborating with nearby banks to facilitate transactions ATM machine/kiosk

Receipts of transactions

Personnel: Good field staff are grassroots people who understand the rural scenario and can relate to

microfinance clients. They must interact daily with clients training and advising them in their financial

decisions. Moreover, this relationship must be driven by a coherent vision from the top that directs their

activities for the financial betterment of their clients.

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Process: The biggest challenge for microfinance institutions in India is collection of information from

remote rural areas. To meet this challenge, several MFIs have turned to information technology-based

solutions to optimize data collection. This refers to MFI initiatives that use a hand-held device to allow

loan officers to do electronic documentation and/or evaluate credit applications in the field and a

system to automatically upload transactions to the central MIS. There are many notable benefits of this.

They are better use of staff time, faster loan processing, adherence to rules and regulations and more

accuracy.