The volume makes an effort to study microfinance in India at the regional level. The chapters contributed by academicians and practitioners stress the importance of microfinance for economic growth to involve active participation of all groups including the dalits. With reference to specific states, they delve into the self-help groups and their role in economic empowerment: the way they encourage informal savings in rural households; their linkage with banks and their contribution on socioeconomic development in general. They view the importance of microfinance organisations for success of employment programmes and role of microfinance in alleviating poverty. Specially focusing on East and North-east India, they discuss the sustainability of microfinance institutions. While pointing out the positive impact of microfinance, they also mention some of its constraints like inflexibility and delay, high transaction cost and lack of training.