News

New Study: Impact of COVID-19 on Microenterprises in India

A new, collaborative study by GAME and LEAD at Krea University seeks to capture the impact of COVID-19 on microenterprises in India, over a period of six months. Launched in May 2020, the study will capture key trends related to the impact of COVID and government-mandated lockdowns on business livelihoods, employment, and the income of nano and microbusinesses. An interactive dashboard capturing insights and data from the first round of the survey has been released.

Turning the conversation towards gender-based violence amid COVID

LEAD at Krea organised a three part webinar series addressing the challenges faced by women-led microenterprises and supporting them as they struggle to adapt and survive amid the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. The series, a collaboration with the World Bank and the Ministry of Rural Development, featured a roster of eminent speakers, policymakers, experts from industry and academia, and practitioners. The webinars discussed adapting lessons from success stories to women-led enterprises, moving on towards building a path to recovery and ended with securing their place in the larger entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Scoping Meso Level Insurance in Agriculture Sector in India

Senior Research Associate Vinith Kurian and Research Fellow Sabina Yasmin from LEAD have been awarded a research fellowship as part of Bharat Inclusion Initiative’s 2020 Fellowship Program. The agricultural insurance sector in India has largely focused at the level of micro insurance (individual farmers as policy holders), through highly subsidized central schemes such as PMFBY. Sabina and Vinith’s research will focus on exploring the potential and feasibility of agricultural insurance at the meso-level.

Providing liquidity and cash availability a priority for survival of MSMEs and informal sector

Sharon Buteau joins a panel of experts to discuss measures to protect small businesses under the existing lockdown measures. The panel discussion on 'The GAME COVID-19 Coalition- Funding The Recovery' by Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) India, is part of a webinar series powered by YourStory.

Can manufacturing change India’s demographic destiny?

Few efforts have been initiated by the Government of India to match India's substantial youth population with labour market opportunities. In this article, the authors discuss how manufacturing could be a possible solution to this issue.

Is Universal Basic Income a Good Idea for India?

Shashank Sreedharan, Research Associate at IFMR LEAD, writes in The Qrius on the concept of universal basic income, its benefits and its potential to enhance India's social security landscape.

Comics help women become super savers in India: see the pages

The Guardian features IFMR LEAD's study, "testing of financial literacy modules and saving mechanism tools to understand what enable women to save more."

See you in the funny papers: women love comics about financial literacy

The Guardian features the comic books used as part of IFMR LEAD's study to spread financial literacy among women in India