Author Archives: [email protected]

Postcards from the Village Square

LEAD at Krea University

Our research and field teams occasionally run into curious and amusing situations on their data-collection missions into the hinterland. These experiences also offer insights into people’s lived experiences and the various dimensions of the problems central to our research. Here … Read More

Assessing the Impact of Credit on Micro and Small Enterprises

This evaluation assesses the impact of Dell Foundation’s investments in financial service providers that are servicing the Micro, Small and Medium enterprise sector in India. Background Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have garnered an increased amount of attention lately … Read More

Early Insights from a Digital Intervention for Women’s Collectives

LEAD at Krea University

Government entitlements are often the primary source of social protection for poor households. In Chhattisgarh, IWWAGE – an initiative of LEAD at Krea University – and Haqdarshak Empowerment Solutions Private Limited (HESPL), in collaboration with the State Rural Livelihoods Mission … Read More

Emerging Insights from Digital Solutions in Financial Inclusion

Sharon Buteau, Preethi Rao, Fabrizio Valenti

In a rapidly digitizing country, Digital Financial Services (DFS) and fintech companies hold the promise of bringing financial inclusion to the last mile. Ensuring that vulnerable and marginalized groups have access to digital finance, can substantially reduce the time spent on … Read More

Women’s Collectives and Individual Enterprise: A Livelihoods Model for Rural Women in Central India

Tanushree Bhan

This blog presents an example of an existing livelihoods model to undertake a critical evaluation of how entrepreneurship is conceived for rural women in self-help groups (SHGs) in two parts. The purpose of this two-part blog is to show that … Read More

LEAD presents its work at the 5th Dvara Research Conference: Household Finance

Host: Dvara Research The 5th Dvara Research Household Finance Conference held from 7th to 11th June 2021, brought together financial practitioners, academics, researchers and practitioners for insightful discussions and presentations on various themes of household finance. LEAD presented findings from its study that … Read More

Gendered Economic Impacts and Burden of Unpaid Care Work: Learnings from COVID-19

Partners: CORE Net, IWWAGE, SEWA Bharat COVID-19 has exposed and worsened existing economic gender inequalities and biases against women in the labor market. Although women’s participation and remuneration have always been much lower than men’s, it has further declined due … Read More

LEAD’s New Website is Live – Marking our Complete Transition to a New Visual Identity

Sharon Buteau, Preethi Rao

At LEAD, we believe in the power of communicating knowledge effectively to create impact – at every step in our journey, we have endeavoured to bring out the best possible outcomes for all stakeholders involved. As a leading action-oriented research … Read More

Women Entrepreneurs as the Powerhouse of Recovery

LEAD at Krea University

This report brings forth evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on women enterprises in India, and delves into the various factors that inhibit their growth in the current context. It also highlights strategies for promoting women entrepreneurship through an ecosystem … Read More

Motivating Loan Officers to Improve the Provision of Financial Services to the Poor

This study explores how information on incentives can influence the performance of loan officers of Microfinance Institutions. … Read More