Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have played a crucial role in fostering financial inclusion but they should refrain from any reckless lending, Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju said on Wednesday. "We should all be careful on this. Any reckless or poor underwriting norms regarding lending to Self Help Groups (SHGs) or Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) will only harm the sector," he said at an event organised by Sa-Dhan here. Anything that will impact their capacity to repay back will actually harm MFIs, he said. "So, we should be very careful in what we lend, when we lend and how we lend because their financial literacy is limitedtheir exposure to the outside world is limited. We should not capitalize on that. We should actually try to empower them, provide the needed finance and also ensure hand holding so that they flourish," he said. Nagaraju said under the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme, there are more than 77 lakh groups with Rs 2.6 lakh crore outstanding loans benefitting about