How Atal Pension Yojana is helping Indians save for retirement
Government of India’s contributory pension scheme, Atal Pension Yojana, encourages citizens to save for retirement. This study finds that APY not only provides a basic pension, but also promotes bro...
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Debasis Rooj
Reshmi Sengupta
11 July, 2025
- Articles
The State within India’s corporate bond market
The value of gross issuances in India’s corporate bond market has grown by 150% over the past decade. In this post, Harsh Vardhan contends that while the market has become bigger, reforms are needed...
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Harsh Vardhan
12 June, 2025
- Perspectives
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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Muhammad Meki
09 April, 2025
- Articles
I4I Panel Discussion: Financing development in India
I4I recently organised a panel discussion on ‘Financing Development in India’ with Prachi Mishra (Goldman Sachs), Andy Mukherjee (Bloomberg), and Ananth Narayan (SPJIMR). The discussion was modera...
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Nalini Gulati
03 October, 2019
- Videos
Linking lending rates to external benchmark: Challenges and opportunities for banks
The Reserve Bank of India has made it mandatory for banks to link all new floating-rate personal, retail loans, along with loans to micro, small and medium enterprises to an external benchmark-based i...
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K. Srinivasa Rao
25 September, 2019
- Perspectives
Would RBI fund transfer weaken government's financial position?
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently decided to transfer Rs. 1.76 trillion to the Government of India (GOI). If the RBI has inadequate capital, then it should not transfer funds to the GOI. But ev...
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Gurbachan Singh
02 September, 2019
- 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 Mobara...
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Vikas Dimble
Mushfiq Mobarak
21 August, 2019
- Articles
Amalgamation of public sector banks: The task ahead
The central government has proposed amalgamation of three public sector banks (PSBs), the first stage of which has been completed. This strategic move is touted to be the beginning of transformation o...
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K. Srinivasa Rao
26 November, 2018
- Perspectives
What ails the Indian banking sector?
Non-performing assets (NPAs) of Indian banks have risen from under 3% to over 13% in the past couple of years, making the state of the banking sector one of the biggest challenges facing the country i...
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Pronab Sen
20 September, 2018
- Perspectives
Measuring the equilibrium impacts of credit: Evidence from India’s 2010 microfinance crisis
In October 2010, the government of Andhra Pradesh issued an emergency ordinance, bringing microfinance activities in the state to a complete halt and causing a nationwide shock to the liquidity of len...
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Emily Breza
Cynthia Kinnan
13 July, 2018
- 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...
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K. Srinivasa Rao
11 July, 2018
- Perspectives
The cycle of debt among vendors in India and the Philippines
Many street vendors rely on daily or weekly loans from moneylenders to finance working capital. Given the high interest rates, why do they not use a little bit of each day’s earnings to buy working ...
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Dean Karlan
Sendhil Mullainathan
Benjamin N. Roth
29 June, 2018
- Articles
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...
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Radhika Pandey
Bhavyaa Sharma
31 May, 2018
- Explainers
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
New resolution framework for stressed assets: Challenges and opportunities
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 aims to expedite resolution of stressed assets, and provide an exit route to failed entities. A simplified, generic framework has been developed by RBI f...
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K. Srinivasa Rao
16 May, 2018
- Perspectives
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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
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...
Radhika Pandey
Ila Patnaik
Rajeswari Sengupta
21 February, 2025
- Perspectives