Microfinance has made tremendous growth in India over the years and it has become a household name in view of the multi-pronged benefits with regards to services for poor in our country. Microfinance services are provided mainly by two different models viz., SHG-bank linkage model and MFI-bank model. Out of these two models, SHG-bank linkage model has emerged as the more dominant and widely accepted model due to its adoption by formal financial institutions namely, Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks. The MFI-bank model is also gaining importance due to its massive supports by various private sector and foreign funding agencies. The present study deals with progress under micro finance in Rajasthan and focus on SHG-Bank linkage model. The SBLP has made an adventure in the economy by transforming the formal banking services to rural poor and needy people particularly women group. Due to wide spread rural bank branch network, the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme is very suitable in the Rajasthan context. This paper is an attempt to analyze the SHGs movement in Rajasthan as these are helpful in order to alleviate poverty and women empowerment and also describes the problem and prospects regarding micro finance. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of micro finance programme in Rajasthan state. The study results proved that micro finance programme has been recognized as one of the most successful and rapidly growing programme in Rajasthan state.

KEY WORDS: Growth, Microfinance, Models, Self-Help Group, SHG-Bank Linkage Programme.