Ongoing

Enabling Digital Adoption Among Women Entrepreneurs – Insights From a Pilot on Digital Ledgers

Sijo John, Ryan D’souza

Entrepreneurs require access to timely and accurate financial information to make informed business decisions. However, many small business owners lack the technical skills to maintain financial records, and the process is time-consuming. They rely on recall rather than record. Innovations … Read More

Beyond the Numbers – Decoding the Gender Gap in Financing MSMEs in India

Partners: Villgro, ANDE India, USAID, Caspian Debt Women-run micro, small and medium enterprises (WMSMEs) account for approximately only 20 percent of all MSMEs in India. WMSMEs are constrained by various challenges, principally access to finance at different stages of the … Read More

Women’s Empowerment and Gender-based Violence: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

Shailja Tandon

In 2008, the United Nations Secretary-General unveiled the UNITE campaign intending to end violence against women and girls by 2030. Several campaigns were launched with a similar goal by United Nations with relevant stakeholders. The Pandemic unleashed its terrain of … Read More

Enabling Integrated Enterprise Development –
From Siloed Solutions to Systemic Change 

Sharon Buteau

Given the multidimensionality of poverty, a combination of well-thought-out interventions is required to address the many interconnected challenges related to development. Complex interventions are increasingly being implemented in the area of livelihood creation, rural development and community health as a … Read More

Making ‘Hybrid’ Work for Women: Emerging Insights and Opportunities for Moving the Needle

Partners: Zoom Inc, IWWAGE The COVID pandemic has re-defined the nature of work, and brought different working models such as remote and hybrid working arrangements into the spotlight across the globe. In India, where advancing women’s labour force participation in … Read More

SARDI India MSME Tech Policy Fellowship: Emerging Insights and the Way Forward

Partners: USAID, DAI There are over 63 million MSMEs in India, 99% of which are microenterprises. Over 80% of those microenterprises do not employ any workers and nearly 70% of enterprises are not registered with any statutory office, thus being … Read More

Women in India’s Startup Ecosystem Report (WISER) 

This study maps the current state of women’s participation in India’s startup ecosystem and identifies levers that founders and investors can employ to increase their participation.   Background India’s female labour force participation rate is among the lowest in the world … Read More

Insights from a Survey of Common Service Centres (CSCs) in Chhattisgarh

Sampurna Basu, Abinaya Rengarajan

Established under the Government of India’s Digital India programme, Common Service Centres (CSCs) are local access points for the delivery of essential public utility services, social welfare schemes, and other B2C services to citizens in rural and remote areas of … Read More

Exploring the Intersection of Climate Change, Livelihoods, Gender and Well-being in and around Pulicat Lake

This project aims to capture and understand the various phenomena and dimensions namely livelihoods, climate, socio-economic, finance, power and gender interplay at various levels in the Pulicat region. BackgroundLocated between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in South India, Pulicat is … Read More

Opportunities and Challenges for a Green Economic Recovery in Odisha: Exploring the Role of a Collaborative Stakeholder Platform

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on economies worldwide have highlighted the importance of bringing a paradigm shift in enabling an economic recovery, beyond conventional models of growth. Against this backdrop, LEAD at Krea University organised a two-day closed-door workshop … Read More