30 May, 2018Financial 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
Does political reservation for women improve programme delivery?
This column outlines results of a study that assesses the impact of women leaders on corruption and other aspects of the quality of delivery of MNREGA. It argues that administrative experience, traini...
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Farzana Afridi
- 17 January, 2013
- Articles
Explainer: India’s payments banks
In August 2015, the RBI issued in-principle licences to 11 entities to establish payments banks in India – a unique format of banking which has not been used anywhere else in the world. Fully based ...
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Rahul Choudhury
- 30 May, 2018
- Explainers
Recapitalising public sector banks by disinvesting in RBI: Right and wrong
The Economic Survey 2015-16 put forth the argument that the Government of India could reduce its capital in the RBI from its current large level and use it to increase its capital in public sector ban...
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Gurbachan Singh
- 09 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Achieving financial inclusion: Going cashless
A World Bank survey reveals that while about half of all individuals in India had bank accounts in 2014, only 12% had made a cashless transaction in the past year. In this article, Bappaditya Mukhopa...
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Bappaditya Mukhopadhyay
- 06 April, 2016
- Perspectives
How doorstep banking increased savings and income in Sri Lanka
Recent findings in development economics indicate that microloans are likely to perform best when accompanied by financial education, insurance, and savings products. This column presents evidence fro...
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Michael Callen Suresh de Mel Craig McIntosh Christopher Woodruff
- 30 March, 2016
- Articles
Increasing economic divide within backward castes
While the high level of socioeconomic inequality between the forward and backward caste groups in India is well documented, there is little research on inequalities within the backward caste groups. T...
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Ashish Singh
- 28 March, 2016
- Articles
Financial inclusion for the poor: Using RCTs for effective programme design
While the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana – the Indian government’s flagship financial inclusion scheme - is impressive in its mission, it does not seem to have achieved meaningful results so far....
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Ruchira Bhattamishra
- 06 January, 2016
- Perspectives
When higher volatility is good news
Conventional wisdom suggests that access to financial services such as banks and bond markets, providing savings and borrowing instruments, allows smoothing consumption over lifetime, irrespective of...
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Rudrani Bhattacharya Ila Patnaik
- 16 December, 2015
- Articles
Cash to cashless
The RBI is in discussion with the government on ways to reduce cash usage in the economy and to promote the use of cashless instruments. This column presents results from a study that estimates the e...
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Bappaditya Mukhopadhyay
- 30 November, 2015
- Articles
JAM and the pursuit of nirvana
The Finance Ministry is proposing to roll all subsidies into a single, lump-sum cash transfer to households, on the back of the JAM (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar, Mobile numbers) trinity. In this article,...
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Jean Drèze
- 13 November, 2015
- Perspectives
Foreign currency borrowing by Indian firms: What do we know?
As foreign currency borrowing by Indian firms has been increasing, concerns have surfaced about rising associated risks. Hence, recent policy changes seeking to make the regulatory regime simpler and...
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Ila Patnaik Ajay Shah Nirvikar Singh
- 09 November, 2015
- Articles
Are banks responsive to credit demand shocks in rural India?
The output of Kharif crops is estimated to decrease by about 2% this year due to deficient monsoon rains in some Indian states. How responsive are commercial banks to a credit demand shock in rural I...
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Sankar De Siddharth Vij
- 05 October, 2015
- Articles
Emergence of Bandhan as a bank: A new era in the Indian banking industry
At a time when the Indian banking industry is experiencing a steep rise in bad loans, Bandhan – an MFI with a near 100% loan recovery rate – has converted into a bank. Based on a survey of 112 Ba...
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Somdutta Basu Souvik Dutta Abhirup Sarkar
- 27 August, 2015
- Articles
Inclusive finance for inclusive growth: A gender perspective
While research has established that financial inclusion programmes lead to economic upliftment of poor families owing to the participation of women, the evidence on the impact of such programmes on w...
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Vigneshwara Swamy
- 31 July, 2015
- Articles
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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...
- Vaibhav Anand Rajeswari Sengupta
- 19 May, 2014
- 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
Explainer: India’s payments banks
In August 2015, the RBI issued in-principle licences to 11 entities to establish payments banks in India – a unique format of banking which has not been used anywhere else in the world. Fully based ...
- Rahul Choudhury
- 30 May, 2018
- Explainers