This is her second loan from the company, having paid off her first one. Mamta Devi, like the hundreds of thousands of women in north Bihar who take these loans, does not understand how interest rates work but knows that, somehow, it matters for the payout. “The first question they ask the grahak mitras (village-level outreach agents) is how much they will have to pay back each month,” said Sameer Kundu, area manager of Adi Chitragupta Finance Limited (ACFL), the only microfinance company headquartered in Bihar, speaking to this writer at his office in Madhubani town.