Inclusive finance and inclusive growth are not really cousins but are siblings or perhaps more appropriately twins. Or technically speaking, inclusive finance is a necessary condition for inclusive growth. Let us look at the relationship a little more closely to

As in the case with a business organisation, much of the problem of human civilization can perhaps be traced to the graduated dawning of awareness and the consequent understanding of required fine-tuning. In a generic sense the problem can be

There is no free lunch in this world. Even in charities there are costs. And then we all know that we tend not to appreciate a freebie as much as we would have had we been made to bear the

There is a need and there is a compulsion. When it comes to the rural economy the compulsion is to survive and when it comes to the need, the rural economy needs access to fund. If we look at the

Anguthhachaap. This term has over a period of time become synonymous with illiteracy. In the Hindi movies of those eras when nobody could even think that the Bombay filmdom would one day be referred to as Bollywood – an aspirational

When the Gods needed to destroy the Mahishasura, they invoked a female power in the form Devi Durga. In the entire history of civilization, almost without exception, the mightiest power has always been reposed in a female God. Take the

When the conventional wisdom shouts and tells us that traditionally a village economy is change resistant it doesn’t spell out one important assumption embedded in it – the village economy lacks connectivity and empowerment to change. The same assumption also

Eighties provided the Black Swan to the Indian Economy. As the decade drew to a close the most improbable thing happened. For the first time the economic narrative of India changed and the journey from a public sector economy to

When Y V Reddy took over as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of in 2003, by his own admission, he didn’t bring with him the experience of a banker. But a career bureaucrat that he was, he understood the

Coins remain a big issue across the globe when it comes to depositing them in the bank. Here is an incident that I came across recently while surfing the net. Mr Grayson, a blogger, writes about his helplessness while trying

The economic reality is cleary pointing toward the need for evolving a model based on individual lending alongside the accepted model based on joint liability. The reasons have been laid out in my last blog but for the sake of

In the last post I argued in favour of the indispensability of handholding and why technology can at best be a facilitator rather than being a total replacement of human intervention in the microfinance segment. This was argued in the

Microfinance as a facilitator to cut the vicious cycle of poverty and lay out a clear direction towards capacity creation for triggering a revenue stream as an instrument for development has been debated in all its nuances. Yes, it is

At the beginning of the microfinance movement, the thought of how to secure the credit was paramount. With the poor being the focus, it was quite natural that a collateral as a pledge against any loan would be hard to

Demographic transition in India and the issues involved are no longer of just academic interest. The impact of transition is now being felt everywhere so much so that it has even cast its shadows on the poor households. To consider

Financial inclusion as a mission is at a crossroad. The equation that defines the process of inclusion is stated to be as follows Financial inclusion = financial awareness + access to finance. The roadblocks to the process of inclusion have

In the literature dealing with poverty the proposition that the uninsured risk has significant welfare cost not just in the short run but also in the long run by perpetuating poverty has taken up almost an axiomatic character. The fact

‘Roti, kapda aur makan’ was the original development slogan encapsulating the poverty alleviation programme in India. It has now changed to ‘bijli, sadak aur paani’. But the essence of the development strategy hasn’t really changed. What has changed is the

Historically informal money lending operations without legal supervision have been a major problem in India especially in the rural areas. The stories of how the poor rural folks have continued to suffer in the hands of unscrupulous money lenders have

Globally, not excluding India, the MFI intervention model rests on two principles. Providing access to finance to those who do not have access to the traditional channels and Empowering them to leverage the accessed fund gainfully and efficiently. This creates

Generations of students of Economics grew up reading ‘Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered’ by the German born British Economist E F Schumachar. Published in 1973, the book champions small, appropriate technologies that empower people

Repeated talks of market’s ability to distribute gains of growth have triggered a reasonable faith in the power of the market to such an extent that it has almost taken up a divine status. If, however, we take out the

The need to have a thriving range of large corporations on a national scale notwithstanding, it has been proven over time that the presence of a wide array of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) is an important growth driver.

Home is where the heart is, goes the oft-quoted English proverb and this adage is probably at its truest in India’s villages. At a time, when the government is putting stress on promoting health and hygiene, often the first step

Microfinance is no more just a tool to eradicate poverty; it has become a crucial catalyst for individual development and growth in entrepreneurial activities in economically under-served areas of the country. All reports on microfinance succinctly suggest that over the

As microfinance institutes continue to prove their role in forwarding the government’s agenda of overall financial inclusion, particularly in ‘last mile’ access to loans in far-flung villages, it is time for the government to increase its efforts in encouraging MFIs

The growth of MFIs in India is a well-documented matter. The success of microfinance is such that it is one of the largest growing sectors in the country, with recent reports finding that microfinance has shown a 64 percent growth

India is a nation hard to ignore, both in the context of Asia, or even the rest of the globe, because of the significant strides it has taken towards development. It is also true that India lives in its villages.

The government’s decision to demonetize two denominations of high value currency notes and to push forth the idea of a cashless economy since November 8, 2016 is indeed a paradigm shift in India’s economic history. Since the platform for ‘Digital

There remains no doubt whatsoever that MFIs have gone where regular banks do not dare to go. Over the years micro-credit lenders have developed an enviable network that connects much of rural India. Given the circumstances, it seems prudent that