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Tag Search: “financial inclusion”

Improving farmers’ income: Learnings from a survey in Jharkhand

To work towards the central government’s goal of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022, the state government of Jharkhand initiated the ‘Jharkhand Opportunities for Harnessing Rural Growth’ project in 201...

  • Notes from the Field

Lead Bank Scheme: Does organisational design matter?

The Lead Bank Scheme of the RBI involves a ‘lead bank’ in each district of India that coordinates financial services in the district, and a ‘convenor bank’ in each state that monitors these activities...

  • Articles

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 sec...

  • Articles

How self-help groups enable households to cope with climatic shocks

Climate variability and extremes, combined with a lack of appropriate insurance devices, pose a risk to rain-fed agriculture and large populations in developing countries. This article examines how se...

  • Articles

How microfinance can help entrepreneurs escape the poverty trap

The idea of poverty traps being important for microenterprises is captured in the adage “it takes money to make money”. This article reports on a study following households in India exposed to differe...

  • Articles

Using intermediaries to deliver credit

Communities are monitoring service providers, and local governments are delivering development and welfare programmes in developing countries. This article indicates the potential value of enlarging t...

  • Articles

The missing women in finance

Women comprise a very small proportion of the financial industry workforce, and this has implications on the way female clients use and benefit from financial services. This article discusses if the f...

  • Articles

Empowering women through direct digital wage payments

India’s rate of female labour force participation dropped from 37% in 1990 to 28% in 2015. Can greater control over earned income incentivise women to work and influence gender norms? This article dis...

  • Articles

What lies behind this year's economics Nobel

In this post, Maitreesh Ghatak discusses how randomised controlled trials – the use of which was pioneered by this year’s economics Nobel Laureates, Banerjee, Duflo, and Kremer – have been successfull...

  • Perspectives

Can the microcredit model be improved?

Microcredit is frequently touted as an effective policy tool to fight global poverty. However, studies suggest that the long-term impact on recipients’ lives is limited. In this post, Mushfiq Mobarak ...

  • Articles

Closing gender gaps in India: Does increasing women’s access to finance help?

Gender gaps in women’s economic opportunities – in the labour market and in entrepreneurship – have remained high in India. This article analyses the macroeconomic impact of closing gender gaps in acc...

  • Articles

Labelled loans and sanitation investments

Rural Indian households report lack of affordability as the main reason for not having a toilet. This article investigates – through an experiment in rural Maharashtra – whether microcredit labelled f...

  • Articles