Dvara Research’s Household Finance Research initiative aims to rigorously understand the financial choices and decisions of low-income or excluded individuals and households, and their relation to achieving households’ objectives. It has been our consistent endeavour to study financial inclusion as a gateway to a suite of appropriate financial services eventually enabling well-rounded household balance sheets and consumer financial well-being.
Head - Household Finance
Senior Research Associate
Rural households need relatively large sums of money for life cycle needs (such as marriages, festivals and old age), emergencies (such as illness, the death of a bread-winner and floods) and investment opportunities (as much in assets and household goods, for example, as in investments in micro-businesses)i .
In this paper, we present two stylized models of the financial system. We make the case that in order to realize the potential of a well-functioning complete financial market, financial system designers and financial service providers will need to think about ways to deliver financial propositions that are customized to individual households by responding to their unique circumstances.
Finance Matters column in The Hindu Business Line – Farzana Najeeb of Advocacy writes the fifth article in the series.
The recent controversy surrounding the microfinance sector has entirely eclipsed the fact that it is the first effort in India to have delivered financial services to remote corners of the country in a self-sustaining manner.
Having understood the deep transformative potential of access to finance and the barriers to accessing it, here's a look at the fundamentals of the MFI cost structure in delivering finance.
"In 5 years, our village would have metal roads, hospitals and old-age homes to take care of the poor, the poor women who work for others now would become employers, giving employment opportunities to many other under-privileged people.
Did you know that only half the adult population in the world has access to a bank account? More than 3 billion people don’t have access to savings accounts, and they are predominantly the world’s poorest people who live on less than US$2 per day.
The announcement of National Pension System (NPS) Lite, a pension plan geared towards economically disadvantaged populations, brings hope for much needed money during non-productive years
Fundamental to the growth and development of an industry is the research that aids its practice, especially in the context of microfinance in India.
Sucharita Mukherjee and Kirthi Rao talk about the importance of quality of underwriting standards in microfinance institutions. This is the first in a series of articles by the authors on the topic “Unearthing the real issues in microfinance".
In all our research efforts, we strive to maintain an independent voice that speaks for the low-income household and household enterprises. Our ability to perform this function is significantly enhanced by our commitment to disseminate as a pure public good, all the intellectual capital that we create.
