Independent Research and Policy Advocacy

June 19, 2013 | Dvara Research

The financial crisis of 2008 brought to light many consumer abuses prevalent in the financial services industry.

By Deepti George, Anand Sahasranaman, Vishnu Prasad, Darshana Rajendran
June 19, 2013 | Dvara Research

Following the IMF-FSB-BIS definition, the FSLRC defines systemic risk as “[a] risk of disruption to financial services that is caused by an impairment of all or parts of the financial system and has the potential to have serious negative consequences for the real economy.”

By Vishnu Prasad
June 13, 2013 | Forbes India

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

June 11, 2013

In a report titled “Making Room for a Planet of Cities”, Shlomo Angel et al examine how the prevailing planning paradigm of containment, which is predicated on the containment of sprawl in cities, is unsuitable for rapidly urbanizing countries like India.

June 5, 2013 | Dvara Research

On a recent visit to MFIs working in eastern Uttar Pradesh, we chanced upon some great innovations and field practices, which are clearly taking customer focus to the next level. In this post, I elaborate on the innovation we saw at Utkarsh Microfinance in Varanasi.

By Aniket Deshpande
June 1, 2013

Five years ago on this day, we took a definitive step towards executing against our vision of delivering financial well-being for rural India with the first branch of Pudhuaaru KGFS going live in Karambayam village of Thanjavur district.

May 28, 2013

In line with Budget announcement by Finance Minister in February, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced to issue INR 12,000 crore to INR 15,000 crore of inflation indexed bonds (IIB) on 4th of June of the current year (2013).

May 23, 2013 | Dvara Research

India’s regulatory architecture has been driven by the creation of product-specific regulators. We have multiple regulators: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that regulates savings and credit,

By Darshana Rajendran
May 22, 2013 | Dvara Research

The Technical Group on Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy proposes to carry out a nationwide survey to assess the ‘state of financial inclusion and financial literacy’ in India. Prior to commissioning this large-scale effort, it would be important to look into the design aspects of such a survey, including: (I)Coordinating with existing large-sample surveys on financial inclusion

By Financial Systems Design
May 17, 2013 | Dvara Research

The FSLRC report identifies three problems that occur when regulators pursue the objectives of financial inclusion and market development like subsidizing credit for agriculture or increasing the flow of credit into certain states,

By Vishnu Prasad