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Tag Search: “financial inclusion”

Finance 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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Affirmative action in credit markets: Can it enhance minorities’ welfare?

In 2009, as part of a Government of India programme to improve the welfare of religious minorities, commercial banks were directed to increase credit to these groups. This article finds that the polic...

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Irrationality in financial decisions: A policy proposal

The high valuations of small- and mid-cap stocks in the Indian market seem indicative of irrational exuberance. In this context, Gurbachan Singh discusses the prevailing policy framework to deal with ...

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How social norms hold women back: A look at recent evidence

In light of India’s low female labour force participation rate, as a follow up to International Women’s Day, I4I Deputy Managing Editor Nikita Mujumdar highlights a selection of economic research on s...

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Emergence of a private credit market in India

The last few years have seen the growth of a private credit market in India, which offers financing to small and mid-sized firms with a relatively high default risk. In this piece, Datta and Sengupta ...

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Facilitating risk-sharing through self-help groups in Bihar

While the self-help group (SHG) programme in Bihar has improved access to low-cost credit for women, this article evaluates whether it improves risk-sharing by examining differences in village-level v...

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UPI: A game changer towards achieving a cashless economy

Since the launch of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), the volume of digital transactions in India has increased exponentially over the last few years. Shamim Ara highlights the trends in the expans...

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Credit cooperatives: Promoting worker well-being during crises?

Research shows that access to alternative credit mechanisms during the pandemic enabled informal women workers to gain financial security, benefitting their mental well-being in the process. Based on ...

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The low productivity trap of collateralised lending for MSMEs

The share of bank credit extended to MSMEs increased dramatically during the pan-demic. In this post, Harsh Vardhan discusses the the government guarantee of bank loans as a possible driver of this gr...

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The 10,000 FPOs scheme ignores women farmers

In this piece, Shilpa Vasavada puts forth her concern that if we don’t revisit the new Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) guidelines with a gender lens, women in the agriculture sector will be left b...

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The future of old times

India needs to plan for a radical expansion of public support for the elderly. In this piece, Drèze and Duflo argue that near-universal social security pensions would be a good start. Elderly persons,...

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How financial access impacts women’s decision-making role in households

Government programmes which grant women access to financial support often provide assistance which is too small to significantly impact women’s economic position within the household. This article use...

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