Blogs

Making the Case for Financial Literacy – Understanding and Addressing Challenges (PART 1)

Mudita Tiwari | September 26, 2012

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

Business Correspondent Might Help but do they Know About it?

LEAD Research Team | September 20, 2012

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

Financially Included – In Reality Excluded!

LEAD Research Team | August 28, 2012

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

Banks at your Doorstep: How Good is the BC Model?

LEAD Research Team | August 22, 2012

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

Rise of the Tier-II Banks?

LEAD Research Team | August 16, 2012

While looking at the usual news updates at the CMF E-Library, I happened to come across an article originally posted at the Economic Times some time ago about a new announcement coming from the RBI. Here is the link: Click … Read More

Hedging Against Yourself

LEAD Research Team | August 8, 2012

Most of us might have a vague idea of what retirement should be like. Some of us might even have started planning for it. The rest of us are probably waiting for one of our ‘future selves’ to do it. … Read More

Microfinance and Inclusive Growth: What are the Measures of Success or Learning?

This post is the detailed description of session one of the Financial Inclusion 2012 Conference. The aim of this session was to lay out the distinct features of microfinance that have a positive impact on the lives of its clients. … Read More

Newsletter Article – What is Rainfall Insurance? Advantages and Key Bottlenecks

Dhruv Sood | July 11, 2012

Despite the gradual increase in irrigation, almost 65% of the Indian agricultural sector still depends on erratic and unpredictable monsoons. Cropping decisions- like which crop to plant, time of sowing, which inputs to use- generally depend on the advent of … Read More

Newsletter Article – Microsavings – Marketing and Impact Experiments

LEAD Research Team | July 11, 2012

The Centre for Microfinance (CMF) brings to the spotlight the research agenda in various facets of the financial inclusion agenda, including results from rigorous social experiments[i] around the world as well as the policy agenda for which this research is … Read More

Newsletter Article – Measuring Financial Literacy

Parul Agarwal | July 11, 2012

The case of little response from the target population towards both the conventional and innovative financial products in rural areas has received a lot of global attention. It has been suggested that low literacy levels and, more importantly, the lack … Read More