We produce blogs to discuss new research findings, ongoing projects, and even personal reflections on the research process. Our blogs are written for a variety of audiences, including other researchers, policymakers, practitioners, financial service providers, grassroots organizations, impact investors and the public. The format is simple and easy to grasp. The language is straightforward, and the tone is non-academic. Our blogs can be of varying lengths. We choose to write a blog when we don’t want to do a full- fledged study or follow a rigorous research process. Blogs may contain opinions and they can also be based on experiences. Some of our blogs may just share some observations, learnings, or challenges.
When you have two systems running in parallel, the hardest part is always managing the interface between the two. Customers don’t usually all migrate to the new system entirely and at the same time, so there is a need for the new system to offer backward compatibility with the older, more established system.
Making access to formal payments infrastructure universal is a key component of the overall vision of financial inclusion and the RBI vision document on payments correctly aims towards an economy that is eventually entirely cash less.
How can policy enable competitive agri-commodity markets thereby also improving the conditions and incentives for farmers and others?
IFMR Finance Foundation’s “Complete Financial Inclusion and Financial Deepening” site has been created with a view to track national progress on these fronts over time.
This post is part 2 of a three-part series, and depicts the legislative and policy backdrop to agri-commodity markets in India
The Indian farmer might earn only INR 30 a day, but there are many of him. According to the 2001 census, the Indian agriculture sector employs about 60 percent of the population, of which farmers comprise 119 million (the rest are agricultural non-owner labourers).
At a fundamental level, it can be argued that internal revenue sources are the most critical funding levers available to a municipality because without effective, predictable generation of internal revenues, it will be impossible to attract new, external sources of funding.
In the previous post of this series, we discussed the status of rural housing and motivations that determine the pattern of construction/upgradation of houses in rural areas.
Even in an environment of great expectations, new RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s opening statement was remarkable for its ambition and clarity of purpose
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.
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.
