7 | Annual Report | 2025-2026 a dynamic, real-time view of the health of our business, enabling timely interventions and informed decisionmaking across the network. Our close interactions with the RBI have helped us update the renewal loan & credit life cover process and also the microfinance pricing model from a viability and sustainability perspective. Arohan is probably the first in the microfinance sector to implement a risk-based pricing approach with a very attractive lowest rate of just 19.99% for the best and 24.24% for a new-to-credit borrower – this was possible as we launched the updated Nirnay 2.0, our own proprietary credit scoring model. We went through a full RBI Inspection in July-August 2025 resulting in a decent assessment and valuable suggestions for improvement on process & compliance. The RBI move to change the Qualifying/Non-Qualifying assets ratio to 60/40 is a welcome step and this will enable many MFIs like us to explore secured lending as part of the business model. The HR function played a key role in ensuring capacitisation across the year on field and non-field staff. The Performance Management focus with Performance Improvement Plans, half-yearly appraisals, updating the grading-banding levels, compensation benchmarking studies and also an employee satisfaction survey have been key elements of focus during the year. We have made positive progress on our diversity levels to 13.69% as of March 2026. Learning & Development remains to be a critical part of the new employee induction, productivity improvement plans, skill gap analyses across levels and functions and also capacity building efforts. Our L&D function has introduced a short learning-snippet initiative to reach out to the field officers in a form and media they feel comfortable in. We are proud to be recognised as one of the most active employers in Eastern India in partnering with BOPTER under the Government’s Apprenticeship Programme, reflecting our commitment to developing future talent and creating meaningful employment opportunities. Our Administration team plays a critical role in ensuring a safe, healthy, and efficient workplace for employees while driving cost optimisation across our network of 1,100+ locations, including our Head Office in Kolkata. Complementing these efforts, initiatives like the “Arohan Swachh Abhiyaan” promotes a culture of hygiene, cleanliness, and workplace pride by recognising and rewarding branches that demonstrate exemplary standards. The past year was marked by tight liquidity and constrained debt availability across the microfinance sector. Despite these challenges, we remained well-funded throughout the year, securing the resources required for growth at competitive rates. Our borrowing mix evolved in line with market conditions, with increased participation from private sector banks and structured financing solutions from NBFCs, particularly to support nonqualifying assets. Recognising the sector’s critical role in extending formal credit to underserved communities, the Union Government introduced a INR 20,000 crore Credit Guarantee Scheme in Mar’26 to facilitate bank lending to MFIs, with dedicated provisions for small and mediumsized institutions. We intend to leverage this initiative both to establish new lender relationships and deepen existing partnerships, thereby further diversifying and strengthening our liability franchise. Another significant development during the year was the progress made on overseas funding avenues, including engagements with international lenders for Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) and External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs), which will help broaden our funding base and support future growth. We are delighted to have been re-viewed on our Quality certifications – ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 for our Internal Audit and IT platform from BSI, India. Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities works with a dual approach - working closely with Aavishkaar Foundation on entrepreneurship development in eastern Uttar Pradesh and the community level activities spanning health camps, hearing check for new borns, value-based education for school children and disaster relief have been received well on the ground. Since the inception of our CSR journey in 2016, we have positively impacted close to 1 mn beneficiaries. Arohan was recognised at The Eastern India Leadership Awards, 2025 for its Innovative CSR practices. We are fortunate to have investors like FMO & IFU who have supported us with grants to finetune our ESG strategy and also work on a Climate Impact document – this helped us publish our second ESG report as of March 2025. The Strategic Initiatives unit at the Corporate Office continued to play a pivotal role in tracking key performance indicators, driving analytical deep-dives on business issues, and evaluating new growth opportunities while supporting informed decision-making across the
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