Category: Opinions

For the first time, the majority of Indian women have been financially included. Fresh data show that the proportion of Indian women with individual accounts in formal financial institutions (primarily banks) reached 61% in 2015, a sharp increase from 48% in 2014, lagging men by only eight percentage points.

Despite the best efforts by policy makers and state-owned banks, the last mile problem has been an insurmountable hurdle in the way of financial inclusion for the poor. Bindu Ananth, Chair – IFMR Trust & IFMR Holdings, busts some common fallacies about financial inclusion.

Imagine you are a labourer in a village in Odisha and have painstakingly completed your Aadhaar formalities (for which you gave a proof of permanent address and your fingerprints).

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Suitability means going from buyer beware to seller be sure

A new paper by Anandi Mani et al in the August issue of Science has a stunning finding – that the cognitive impact of being poor may be equivalent to as much as 13 IQ points.

I read an excellent post by Ajay Shah recently that questioned the policy wisdom of emphasising house ownership over rental housing.

For every loan of Rs, 10,000 made through a Public Sector Bank rural branch, it costs them about Rs. 4150. The same number for a Private Sector Bank rural branch is about Rs. 3210. Little wonder then that rural branch expansion meets with so much resistance.

A few colleagues and I recently travelled through Varanasi and Mirzapur in Eastern Uttar Pradesh visiting Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) in that region and their clients. I am delighted to report that this region, one of the poorest in India, is a hotbed of innovations.

What does the asset allocation look like for people living in remote rural India (villages with less than 5000 population)?

What will it take to make payments universal in India with a ratio closer to one point for every 100 citizens and importantly, who will pay for creating this infrastructure?