17 April, 2025Finance for small-firm growth: Towards flexibility and innovation
While microfinance contract innovations like repayment grace periods help small-firm owners, they can increase default rates for microfinance institutions. Based on field experiments in Pakistan and K...
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Muhammad Meki 
09 April, 2025
- Articles
Do commodity derivatives suspensions rein in food price inflation?
Since December 2021, derivatives trading on seven agricultural commodities remains suspended, driven by concerns over excessive speculation and its potential impact on food prices. This article highli...
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Nidhi Aggarwal Tirtha Chatterjee Karan Sehgal
- 27 February, 2025
- Articles
RBI’s costly experiments with the currency
During 2023-2024, the average annual volatility of the rupee-dollar exchange rate was 1.8% – the lowest in over two decades. In this post, Patnaik, Pandey and Sengupta explain why sudden and sharp l...
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Radhika Pandey Ila Patnaik Rajeswari Sengupta
- 21 February, 2025
- Perspectives
Finance and growth in China and India: Have firms benefited from capital-market expansion?
Financial sectors in India and China are fast expanding. This column presents a new dataset on the capital-raising activity and performance of publicly listed firms in the two countries. It suggests ...
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Tatiana Didier Sergio Schmukler
- 08 August, 2014
- Articles
How well does DBT work on the ground?
PM Modi has emphasised fast-tracking roll-out of the Adhaar-based Direct Benefits Transfer programme. In this note, Sweta Trayambak – who has worked with the district administration of Ramgarh in J...
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Sweta Trayambak
- 04 August, 2014
- Notes from the Field
Financial inclusion of women: Myth or reality?
Research indicates that initiatives targeted at financial inclusion of women have had limited success. This column contends that limited formal ownership of material assets by women and a lack of und...
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Deepti KC Mudita Tiwari
- 04 July, 2014
- Articles
Corporate debt market in India: Issues and challenges
While it is true that the Indian corporate debt market has transformed itself into a much more vibrant trading field for debt instruments from the elementary market that it was about a decade ago, th...
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Vaibhav Anand Rajeswari Sengupta
- 19 May, 2014
- Articles
Estimating losses to consumers due to mis-sold life insurance policies
Mis-selling of financial products has prompted regulators in India to work on consumer protection in financial markets. However, evidence on actual mechanisms and extent of mis-selling is lacking. Th...
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Monika Halan Renuka Sane Susan Thomas
- 19 February, 2014
- Articles
Changing dynamics of the Indian gold market
The demand for gold and its import have been on the rise in India, despite rising gold prices. The RBI has responded by introducing various measures to curb the demand for gold and gold loans. This co...
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Misha Sharma
- 13 January, 2014
- Articles
What is mitigating a financial crisis in India?
The recent turmoil in the currency market and the general slowdown in growth in India are disturbing. However, India has by and large performed better in terms of macro-financial stability as compared...
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Gurbachan Singh
- 08 November, 2013
- Articles
Foreign investors under stress: Evidence from India
Emerging market policymakers are concerned about the effects of foreign portfolio flows on financial stability. This column focuses on the behaviour of investors in extreme events, allowing for the po...
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Ila Patnaik Ajay Shah Nirvikar Singh
- 19 July, 2013
- Articles
A right time for inflation-indexed bonds?
While the introduction of inflation-indexed bonds in India has been hailed by many as a step in the right direction, this column argues that their success will depend on how serious the government is ...
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Viral Acharya Gangadhar Darbha
- 07 June, 2013
- Perspectives
The market for inflation-indexed bonds
On 15 May 2013, the Reserve Bank of India announced that it would begin monthly issues of inflation-indexed bonds starting June 2013. These bonds, wherein in the principal amount adjusts according to ...
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Gurbachan Singh
- 31 May, 2013
- Articles
The Chit fund crisis: Should not put all financial intermediaries in the same bracket
The government has announced a bailout package for the participants of unregulated saving schemes that have been put at risk by the current Chit fund crisis in West Bengal. In this article, Banerjee ...
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Abhijit Banerjee Maitreesh Ghatak
- 03 May, 2013
- Perspectives
Helping the poor to save
Do poor people save? This column portrays the saving and financial behaviours and preferences of the poor. It recommends designing and marketing savings products that address the constraints they curr...
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Parul Agarwal Deepti KC Mudita Tiwari
- 23 January, 2013
- Articles
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Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost Popular Money & Finance Posts
India’s insurance sector: Challenges and opportunities
While India’s insurance sector has been growing dynamically in recent years, its share in the global insurance market remains abysmally low. This article traces the journey of the Indian insurance s...
- Kuntala Bandyopadhyay Saon Ray Vasundhara Thakur
- 31 August, 2020
- Articles
Financial inclusion in India: Progress and prospects
Financial inclusion is globally considered as a critical indicator of development and well-being of society. In this post, Srinivasa Rao traces the financial inclusion journey in India so far, and dis...
- K. Srinivasa Rao
- 11 July, 2018
- Perspectives
Thinking about financial sector reforms in India
A key element of the economy that needs to function well in order to facilitate India’s strong and sustained recovery from the pandemic is the financial system. In this post, Sengupta and Vardhan d...
- Rajeswari Sengupta Harsh Vardhan
- 15 November, 2021
- Perspectives