Independent Research and Policy Advocacy

Publications

Policy Briefs

A Policy Brief is a concise document that summarizes a specific policy issue and offers action-oriented recommendations. For us, it is an important output format for communicating complex policy issues to a non-technical audience. We believe that our policy briefs can help policymakers to better understand the issues at hand and make informed decisions backed by thorough research.

Our Work

September 2, 2024

The objective of this policy brief is to summarise learnings from fieldwork conducted in Rajasthan and Gujarat towards (i) building evidence on the customer protection issues in the sale and servicing of the two insurance schemes and (ii) bringing to the forefront the structural issues on the supply-side that are holding back Financial Service Providers (FSPs) from offering high-quality service in the context of these two schemes.

March 21, 2024 | Dvara Research

In this note, we discuss how the difficulty of selling life insurance led to bundling insurance with savings2, how such bundling can be sub-optimal, and why such products are popular despite adverse customer experiences. We then make a case for providing relevant, complete, and comparable information that can aid suitable product decisions, sale, and persistence. We also offer a template for what such a Customer Information Sheet could look like.

September 27, 2023 | Dvara Research

This research presents a framework comprising nine principles, which we believe are pre-requisites for creating user-centric GRMs.

By Anubhutie Singh, Srikara Prasad, Beni Chugh
August 7, 2023 | Dvara Research

This study presents the design of an Outcome Based Survey crafted to evaluate the effect that UPI-fraud-awareness campaigns have in reducing individuals’ propensity to engage with fraudulent communication.

By Beni Chugh, Lakshay Narang
June 5, 2023 | Dvara Research

Managed competition is a theoretical concept for designing and regulating health insurance systems. Such systems can secure consumers' interests by managing diverging incentives, instituting uniform regulations, equipping consumers to make informed choices, and creating a competitive environment tailored to rewarding those organisations that improve services to consumers.

By Anjali Nambiar, Hasna Ashraf, Aarushi Gupta
June 24, 2022 | Dvara Research

The Microfinance sector is gearing up for change as the recent RBI (Regulatory Framework for Microfinance Loans) Directions, 2022 has put in place comprehensive regulations to ensure customer protection

November 8, 2021 | Dvara Research

In this policy brief, we review the literature to uncover the deficiencies of the consent model and propose measures to improve the consent artefact for new to technology and constrained users.

By Manasvi Aiyer, Beni Chugh
August 25, 2021 | Dvara Research

In this policy brief, we evaluate the design and operation of the public credit guarantee schemes for MSMEs present in India, the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) and the Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units (CGFMU), against the principles developed by the World Bank Group (WBG) and Financial Sect

By Madhu Srinivas, Deepti George
March 26, 2021 | Dvara Research

we conducted a study to evaluate the impact of information disclosures in discouraging consumers from making unsuitable choices, i.e., choices that do not align with their financial circumstances, risk capacity and appetite.

By Niyati Agrawal, Misha Sharma, Madhu Srinivas, Monami Dasgupta, Monika Halan
March 17, 2021 | Dvara Research

Excessive debt negatively affects households and can diminish any developmental gains from such debt. It also dampens a nation’s economic growth and threatens its financial stability.