ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN DELHI THROUGH MICROFINANCE

Microfinance can play a pivotal role in encouraging entrepreneurship and self-employment in an urban region like Delhi which does not fit the classic definition of a poor agricultural society, but is still plagued by the identical problems of poverty and lack of risk-bearing capacities amongst the poorer members of the society. These hyper-urban areas are often left out of the development policy loop as a majority government and private initiatives seek to target the rural, agrarian regions of the country. The objective of the study is to analyse the impact of microfinance activities of SHGs and community groups on the development of entrepreneurship in Delhi. The data extracted from the reports by NABARD reveals that the Self-Help groups (SHGs) and other institutions employing microfinance as a tool of encouraging entrepreneurship and income augmentation have a minimal presence in Delhi. The state machinery and the private sector both need to undertake definite, result-oriented measures to better address the issues of urban poverty prevalent in Delhi.