Independent Research and Policy Advocacy

Principles of responsible and trustworthy AI in digital lending

The paper explores what RTAI means in the context of digital lending. The first section compiles principles of RTAI along with its essential components. The next section maps relevant tools for each principle. These tool recommendations can help lenders implement RTAI practices in their operations.

Mapping India’s Informal Enterprises: A Descriptive View from ASUSE

This blog is the first in a two-part series on nano-enterprises, a segment that remains underrepresented in official statistics and policy discussions. It presents a descriptive overview of India’s unincorporated enterprises using evidence from ASUSE, laying the empirical foundation for subsequent analysis focused on nano-enterprises.

India’s Most Recent Microfinance Crisis: Theory, Empirics & Learnings

In the paper, we lay out a theoretical frame for thinking about microfinance crises. The theoretical frame draws from Hyman Minsky’s 1977 work on financial instability, and layers over it a cultural reasoning that recognises overlending and overborrowing as cultural traits that sometimes takes hold of microfinance markets.

Understanding Low-Income Households from a Social Capital Perspective

The objective of this paper is to draw attention to those aspects of the lives of Low-Income Households (LIHs) that aren’t related to their income. In doing so, the paper characterises LIHs from a social capital perspective, highlighting the maintenance and strengthening of social capital as a deep-rooted cultural trait that is central to meaning-making in the lives of LIHs.

Summary of the RBI FREE AI Committee Report

In the first blog of this series of two, we break down (i) the Committee’s methodology, (ii) key insights on the current state of AI adoption, (iii) FREE AI Framework and (iv) its recommendations.