Welcome to the new IFMR Research Blog!

As you can see, we’ve rebranded our blog from the Centre for Microfinance Blog to include the Centre for Development Finance (CDF), the Small Enterprise Finance Centre (SEFC) and the Centre for Microfinance (CMF) - the research centres under IFMR Research. 

In order to reintroduce our readers, IFMR Research is a premier social science research institute based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The institute specializes in using scientific research methods to assess issues around access to financial services and products for the urban and rural poor; contribution of public and private sector to improve investment and delivery of public goods;and development of the Small and Medium Enterprise industry to aid poverty alleviation. The primary research areas IFMR Research focuses on include, but are not limited to - financial inclusion, livelihoods, social objectives, policy and regulation, environmentally sustainable finance, infrastructure and governance, rural market insight, development metrics, and small and medium enterprise development.

The institute aims to provide academics and researchers with opportunities to conduct high quality research and to generate pertinent findings for the financial sector catering to the poor; provide practitioners and policy makers with research findings that impact the economic and social welfare of the poor; and provide our funders and donors with an opportunity to invest in evaluation of path-breaking development programs.The institute has partnered with leading academic research institutions such as MIT, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley and so on; with leading national and international funding agencies and collaborators such as the World Bank, GIZ, Government of India (Ministry of Finance, National Bank for Rural Development), 3ie and so on.

The Centres comprising the IFMR Research ecosystem include:

·         Centre for Development Finance -The Centre for Development Finance (CDF)was established in 2006 and focuses on improving the delivery of public goods that contribute to inclusive social and economic opportunity in India. Specifically CDF seeks to find sustainable ways improve public and private sector investment in public infrastructure.

·         Centre for Microfinance - The Centre for Microfinance (CMF)was established in 2005 and aims to improve the accessibility and quality of financial services for the poor through rigorous research, knowledge dissemination and evidence-based policy outreach.

·         Small Enterprise Finance Centre - The Small Enterprise Finance Centre (SEFC) was established in 2006 toadvance the research and practice of SME financing and growth in India. The SEFC team seeks to study how financial markets and private market forces can foster the growth of SMEs and the role that SMEs play in the alleviation of poverty.

The IFMR Research Blog brings to you the latest reports from IFMR Researchers working within each of these Centres. Our researchers and collaborators work in diverse geographies in India, and each week we aim to bring you reports directly from the field, op-ed pieces, and preview of the cutting edge-research being conducted currently.

Also, don’t forget to “Meet Our Bloggers” and don’t forget to check out the blog for your daily dose of development economics. It must be noted that the views expressed in this blog are solely those of the authors themselves and should not be taken as representative of the views of IFMR Research.

We appreciate hearing back from our readers and encourage your comments and feedback. If there are specific questions or concerns about the content on any of the blogs, please email our Knowledge Management team at - [email protected].

We appreciate your readership!