Author Archives: admin

Limitless Opportunities, Limiting Constraints

Mridulya Narasimhan, Nidhi Punmia

The aim of this study was to assess the design and delivery of initiatives that aim to promote digital payment adoption among low-income clusters of Jaipur, Rajasthan. This report presents insights on household income patterns, expenditure profiles, saving and borrowing … Read More

Inclusive Finance India Summit 2018

Catalyst held a breakout session on ‘Innovative Digital Payment Business Models for Small Merchants and Low-income Households’ at the Inclusive Finance India Summit 2018. … Read More

Kaleidofin: Advancing Financial Inclusion Through Data Analytics

Catalyst

Through its Incubator Program – Fintech for the last mile, Catalyst provided financial support, market access, mentorship, technology infrastructure, research and operations support to five startups which included startup Kaleidofin. This piece captures insights from an interview with Sucharita Mukherjee … Read More

Digital Financial Inclusion of Women

Catalyst

This field story highlights the gender gap in access and usage of digital payment platforms in Bhatta Basti, Jaipur and identifies strategies to enable adoption by women.

Strengthening the Potential of Digital Finance for Women in Bhatta Basti

Deepti Kc

This learning note unpacks the barriers and opportunities for improving women’s adoption of digital payment solutions, based on an experiment conducted as part of the Catalyst program in Jaipur. The intervention sought to improve women’s access to formal financial services … Read More

Segmenting Low-income Clusters for Digital Payment Solutions

Deepti Kc

As part of the Catalyst program at LEAD, the Digital Payments Lab implemented a series of research projects and operational initiatives centred on digitising a low-income cluster, Bhatta Basti, in Jaipur city. This learning note is the first installment in … Read More

How Digitally Ready are the Urban Ultra-poor?

Mridulya Narasimhan, Nidhi Punmia

LEAD and Catalyst, in collaboration with SEWA Bharat, conducted a survey of 442 ultra-poor households in the Bhatta Basti area of Jaipur. This learning note presents insights on the respondents’ current needs, behaviors, and perceptions with regard to digital payments … Read More

Promoting Digital Payment Solutions Through Canopy Stores

Catalyst

As part of the Catalyst initiative to promote digital payments, we conducted an experiment to explore economical alternatives to create awareness about various digital payment platforms. This field story captures learnings from the ‘Digital Mela’ initiative, where a canopy store … Read More

Women in Ultra-poor Communities & their Role in Household Financial Decision-making and Digital Participation

Maya Durvasula, Mridulya Narasimhan, Nidhi Punmia, Vaisnavi Gnanasekaran

This brief presents findings from a scoping study conducted with self-employed women from low-income households, to identify individual and household-level barriers to greater adoption of digital financial services. 

Milking the Benefits of Digital Payments – A Journey Towards Finding Simple Solutions

Catalyst

In this field story, a milk booth operator shares his experience of transitioning from cash to digital payments using a smartphone, as part of Catalyst’s payment digitisation pilot in Jaipur.