Author Archives: admin

Digital Financial Inclusion and Consumer Capabilities in India: A Handbook For Financial Service Providers

Parul Agarwal, Shreya Chatterjee, Prachi Agarwal

In this handbook, we bring forth perspectives from consumers – those who are at the receiving end of digital financial inclusion. We profile 12 categories of consumers based on gender, region of work (rural/ urban) and age group, and highlight … Read More

Optimizing Network Referrals to Identify and Recruit Creditworthy Entrepreneurs

Arun Chandrasekhar, Emily Breza and Francisco Munoz, Rupika Singh, Khushboo Gupta

The effort of screening quality loan applications and identifying potential borrowers can be very tedious and time consuming. This brief presents findings from a study that seeks to optimize a referral protocol to identify credit-worthy entrepreneurs.

To Pad or Not To Pad: Towards Better Sanitary Care for Women in Indian Slums

Supriya Garikipati, Camille Boudot

A number of programmes have recently been initiated to popularise the use of sanitary pads among women from low-income and marginalised segments, in developing countries. In this light, this article reviews prevailing menstrual practices in different contexts across India, as … Read More

Alleviating Constraints to Adoption of Improved Soil Fertility Management

Aprajit Mahajan, Andre Butler, Khushboo Gupta

This report presents findings from a randomized control trial of a new automated mobile system for delivering personalized fertilizer recommendations. This fertilizer decision support tool, Nutrient Expert (NE) for wheat, provides fertilizer input recommendations for specific fields and growing environments. … Read More

ArthImpact Happy Loans

Anoushaka Chandrashekar, Shashank Sreedharan

The report encapsulates results of a study on the impact of a microcredit product called “Happy Loans” on the business and family fronts of its clients, as well as on the extent of (digital) financial empowerment of this group.

Rethinking Financial Inclusion

Rethinking Financial Inclusion, a five-and a-half day executive program at Harvard Kennedy School, will explore frontier issues in finance for the underserved and address challenges faced by both emerging and developed countries. … Read More

Inclusive Finance India Summit 2016

IFMR LEAD collaborated with Access Assist as technical partner for the Inclusive Finance India Summit 2016, as part of which they produced a series of factsheets on various session themes. … Read More

Certificate Programme on Frontiers of Development Research

The ‘Certificate Programme on Frontiers of Development Research’, conducted by the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), is a six-day foundation programme designed to provide researchers and practitioners rigorous hands-on training in research methods and techniques. … Read More

The Digital Age of Financial Services

Prachi Agarwal

Technology is disrupting the traditional banking and finance landscape in India, across a spectrum of services – credit, payments, savings and insurance. In this article, Prachi Agarwal profiles some upcoming fintech companies that are finding solutions to a variety of traditional … Read More

Can Big Data be Big in South Asia?

Parul Agarwal, Shreya Chatterjee,Tanjilut Tasnuba

How can emerging economies tap into the benefits of big data for financial inclusion? This article draws on a panel discussion on Big Data, hosted by IFMR LEAD and BRAC at the What Works Global Summit 2016 in London recently. … Read More