Saving has lately been recognized as an inevitable instrument of financial inclusion. But this financial behaviour needs to be judicious as undisciplined saving traps people in the vicious circle of poverty that results in accumulated debt. For low-income households, situations … Read More
Newsletter Article, Issue #18: Saving against all Odds – A Savings Story from the Field
This is the inspiring story of an ordinary housewife who rose above her position and succeeded in making her life worthwhile. Hailing from Narpatpur, Varanasi, Gita Devi was just another regular housewife whose job description included looking after her family … Read More
Newsletter Article, Issue #18: Know the Organization – Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL)
An interview with Mrs. Usha Thorat, Director, CAFRAL. In this issue, we get to know more about CAFRAL’s aspirations and future plans in the area of Financial Research. Usha Thorat, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, took over as … Read More
Newsletter Article, Issue #18: Avaaj Otalo: Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Mobile-based Extension Service
It is estimated that more than half of the Indian labor force is engaged in agriculture. Given this, India’s productivity in agriculture is still quite low. For example, India is the second largest producer of cotton in the world, after … Read More
Reporting Live from Satara – HDI Through Field Glasses
My first blog post from Satara was a basic introduction to our project on long term savings and the second was about some preliminary results from our baseline data. This post is not technically about the project but is more … Read More
What Scheme Would you Like? Let’s Ask the Poor
Yesterday evening I attended a SPARK session (symposium like talks on various topics pertaining to development economics held frequently at IFMR) on the MGNREGA. While the speaker went through the history of the various similar schemes the government had conducted … Read More
Vocationalisation of Education in India: Current Scenario, Key Challenges and New Directions
“Every handicraft has to be taught not merely mechanically as is done today, but scientifically. This is to say, the child should learn the why and wherefore of every process.” – Gandhi’s Philosophy of Education The greatest challenge in … Read More
Rockstar of Financial Inclusion: Business Correspondent Model of India
India is a hot bed of financial exclusion. A country which houses nearly 16% of the global population has more than 65% of its people outside the formal financial system (Global Findex 2012). The Indian banking system has adopted multiple … Read More
A Short Message from the Avaaj Otalo Project
“Namashkar… Welcome to the Agriculture Advisory and Agriculture Information service of Awaaj Otalo. Today we will discuss….” If you were a Gujarati (treatment) cotton farmer in the Sayla or Chotila taluka district in Surendranager, each Wednesday you’d be receiving a … Read More
A Ride to Remote Reality
So far I’ve only had the chance to read blogs written by others. This is going to be my maiden blog of my maiden field tour. This was not only a wonderful and educative exposure, but also had a lot … Read More