Microfinance institutions are being criticized for their shift in the objective of serving the poor to the profit-making institutions. Serving the poor is a relatively costlier issue. Thus, microfinance institutions are being blamed for serving the better off clients. The focus of this study is to look at the financial efficiency of microfinance institutions in India and analyse their efficiency to reach women and the poorest of the poor. Application of Data Envelopment Analysis shows, on an average financial efficiency of Indian MFIs is much higher than their social efficiency. However, study does not find evidence for the presence of trade-off between financial and social efficiency.
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