11 May, 2018Explainer: 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
Explainer: Conceptual foundations of cryptocurrencies
In recent times, cryptocurrencies have become a subject of intense deliberations among policymakers, market participants, investors, and other stakeholders. Whether cryptocurrencies will revolutionis...
-
Radhika Pandey Bhavyaa Sharma
- 21 March, 2018
- Explainers
Public bank privatisation: No panacea for the ills of the banking sector
The recent Punjab National Bank fraud has rekindled the debate on bank privatisation, often considered a solution for the poor management in public sector banks. In this article, Sengupta and Roy cont...
-
Shubho Roy Rajeswari Sengupta
- 25 April, 2018
- 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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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....
-
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...
-
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...
-
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,...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
Vigneshwara Swamy
- 31 July, 2015
- Articles
Foreign Borrowing by Indian Firms: Implications for Growth and Macroeconomic Stability
This project analyses the pattern of external borrowing by Indian firms, an exercise that has as yet not been carried out. It identifies possible drivers of such borrowing.
-
Ila Patnaik Ajay Shah Nirvikar Singh
- 30 June, 2015
- IGC Research on India
Twitter feed
Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost Popular Money & Finance Posts
The big bank theory
The Indian banking system is saddled with non-performing and stressed assets, which currently constitute about a quarter of all assets. In this post, Maitreesh Ghatak argues that while there are valid...
- Maitreesh Ghatak
- 11 May, 2018
- Perspectives
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
Where is the cash?
In recent weeks, reports of currency shortages have emerged from several parts of the country. In this post, Nalini Gulati contends that the cash crunch appears to be temporary and is likely to be res...
- Nalini Gulati
- 20 April, 2018
- Perspectives