To make the mainstream banking services available to all, RBI and government have been outlining many initiatives that could accelerate efforts on this. The year 2005 and 2006 witnessed two key initiatives of RBI to reinforce the financial inclusion drive … Read More

According to National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) (59th Round) data, nearly 51% of the farmer families in India are excluded from both formal and informal sources of finance. Exclusion is most acute in Central, Eastern and North-Eastern regions. Among non-cultivating … Read More

I spend a disturbingly high percentage of my time these days pretending to be a sardine in our office elevator, as it creeps down the ten floors towards the cafeteria. That, or standing in a succession of lines at airports. … Read More

Agriculture and allied activities continue to employ 52% of the Indian workforce and account for 17.2% of GDP. Average land holding size however remains very low, with 70% of the land held by farmers who own 2.47 acres (1 hectare) … Read More

In Part 1 of this blog, we discussed some of the challenges related to implementing an FE intervention.  These include high costs related to providing FE in a classroom setting, logistics and material costs, building the capacity of the staff … Read More

Qualitative Research: Something more than mere description         In our profession, we deploy both Quantitative and Qualitative research methodologies. While both the methods have their own unique uses, that have been widely documented, I have often observed … Read More

We begin the Financial Literacy Education or FE series from today. Based on the latest findings from our on-going studies in the field of financial literacy and its impact on the financial behaviour of people. The Reserve Bank of India … Read More

Access to financial service is important can be verified by this simple story of Santosh. When he migrated to Delhi, he had no bank account. He was lucky that that his landlord helped him open a bank account. He started … Read More

Imagine paying almost a fifth of your monthly income in interest on a loan that has a higher cost per month than most formal loans have per year? This is Saraswati’s reality. A maid from Chennai, she was forced to … Read More

Lack of familiarity with a particular system and low level of technological sophistication often poses as obstacles to the promotion of electronic cards and mobile phone banking among the poor, especially people who live in the rural areas. As a result, the … Read More