10 September, 2013
Biking to more education in India: Here's a blog discussing an impact evaluation of Bihar's bicycle program conducted by one of our principal investigators, Karthik Muralidharan
06 September, 2013
Financial inclusion, stability, integrity and consumer protection : Financial inclusion is an important goal in the global development agenda, but how do we ensure that it reinforces the stability and integrity of financial markets? CGAP's CEO shares insights from the September 2013 Global Policy Forum in Kuala Lumpur
04 September, 2013
Monkeying with the rupee: One of our principal investigators, Debraj Ray discusses the Rupee's devaluation and argues that the food security bill can not be blamed for the downturn
Unlocking India's innovation potential: Pari Natarajan talks about four fields in which India is set to push the bar in innovation: Big Data, Clean energy, mobile and social computing
August 2013
Evaluating financial literacy for branchless banking clients: How do you evaluate the impact of financial literacy programs for BC clients? CGAP's blog features an article by our Policy Impact and Development Head, Mudita Tiwari
Redesigning Cities: With unprecedented levels of worldwide urbanization observed over recent years, we come to the question, what is the relationship between urban planning and development? The Guardian plans to have a debate on the issue this Thursday (August 29th) on this forum
Is it nuts to give to the poor without strings attached?: A charity named GiveDirectly focuses on simply handing money to the poor with no strings attached - a case study of a village named Saiya in Kenya shows that no one seems to be blowing the money away like a lottery winner
What options do MFIs have to leverage M-Banking?: CGAP's latest focus note specifies the two types of models popularly used by MFIs to leverage M-banking
Getting India Wrong: Partha Dasgupta, a professor at the University of Cambridge argues that debates such as Sen vs. Bhagwati are missing the point if they ignore the role our population's growth rate and increasing environmental pollution play in the persistence of poverty
Kerala Govt. gets RBI nod for Islamic Banking: The Kerala government recently got an approval from the RBI to launch an NBFC engaging in sharia compliant lending
Star Wars: One of our principal investigators, Debraj Ray shares his thoughts on the Bhagwati vs. Sen debate in a blog on I4I: Ideas for India
Savings banks will serve the bottom layer: NABARD chairman, Prakash Bakshi calls for the creation of exclusive "savings banks" to cater to the deposit needs of the bottom of the pyramid
Why some Bangladeshis don't love their MFIs: Stuart Rutherford talks about two major operational issues with micro finance practices today, which we've noticed on the field as well. These factors are actively discouraging their clients and need to be dealt with in the long run. Here's a link to our study with Rohini Pande and Erica Field which explores the implications of changing repayment schedules: http://bit.ly/1c5RA2F
RBI approves reforms for Primary Co-ops: The Reserve Bank of India recently approved some major reforms for primary agricultural cooperatives - "Assets and liabilities of primary cooperatives will now stand transferred to central/state cooperative banks. In States where the central/state cooperative banks are fully computerized and on core banking systems, primary cooperatives will function as their business correspondents."
Rethinking Healthcare Delivery: The Guardian features an article on using local entrepreneurs for innovation in local healthcare delivery by incentivizing performance and encouraging an open data policy
July 2013
31 July, 2013
Info ladies in Bangladesh: Check out this innovative new initiative taken by an NGO in Bangladesh on resource mobilization: They train women for three months, who then offer villagers the chance to see a loved one, get a blood sugar check or even legal advice; as they cycle around remote villages in Bangladesh with laptops and cables, to bring internet access to locals.
CAG finds holes in enforcing MGNREGA: The times of India reports that the CAG of India has found several problems with the Management Information System of the MGNREGA Job Scheme in rural Karnataka
CAG finds holes in enforcing MGNREGA: The times of India reports that the CAG of India has found several problems with the Management Information System of the MGNREGA Job Scheme in rural Karnataka
30 July, 2013
Turn Right of Left? Or the Middle Way?: I4I: Ideas for India features an interesting article from Dilip Mokherjee on the recent Amartya Sen vs. Jagdish Bhagwati debate. "While Sen represents the pro-state-led assistance stand and Bhagwati is seen as pro-market, what India requires is the right combination of prescriptions from both camps to effectively combat poverty."
29 July, 2013
How Anti-Poverty Programs Go Viral: Two of CMF's Principal researchers, Abhijit Bannerjee and Esther Duflo recently published a study on using socially influential members of the community to increase the take-up of development programs
25 July, 2013
Analyzing a City's Finances: This blog post from the financing small cities project gives an insight into Municipal finance for a small city in Karnataka
23 July, 2013
Three thoughts for financial inclusion entrepreneurs: Neil Davidson, the founder of Coda Payments shares advice for Financial Inclusion Entrepreneurs
22 July, 2013
Amartya Sen backs Bihar's growth model: With a rare foray of academia into Indian Politics, Amartya Sen has recently expressed support for Bihar's inclusive development model, as compared to Gujarat's pro-privatization GDP led growth model which has been supported by Arvind Panagriya and Jagdish Bhagwati
A Perspective on the Indian Mid-day meal Scheme: A researcher from Oxford University's Department of International Development makes a case for India's mid-day meal scheme
20 July, 2013
The 5 Most Innovative Ideas for Tackling World Poverty: CMF's fellow organization, Innovations for Poverty Action recaps the 5 most innovative ideas our principle researchers have discovered so far for tackling world poverty. Here's an article about CMF and JPAL's impact evaluation on asset transfers to the hardcore poor:http://nyti.ms/1b0o3GV
18 July, 2013
Debraj Ray - Barcelona GSE Summer Forum 2013: Another CMF PI, Debraj Ray speaks about development being a fundamentally uneven process and how imbalanced sectoral growth can cause income inequality, leading to a connection between development and conflict among class lines
17 July, 2013
Rohini Pande - Barcelona GSE Summer Forum 2013: One of CMF's principal researchers, Rohini Pande talks about corruption, poverty, fragmentation and conflict at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics' Roundtable on Development
Amartya Sen - India's dirty fighter: Amartya Sen and Jean Drèze's new book, 'An Uncertain Glory' looks at India's 'unaimed opulence'. They discuss India's lagging HDI indicators in contrast with its economic growth and point out how India is caught in the absurd paradox of people having mobile phones but no toilets
Amartya Sen - India's dirty fighter: Amartya Sen and Jean Drèze's new book, 'An Uncertain Glory' looks at India's 'unaimed opulence'. They discuss India's lagging HDI indicators in contrast with its economic growth and point out how India is caught in the absurd paradox of people having mobile phones but no toilets
16 July, 2013
Using waste for building roads: In a recent announcement, the Ministry of Rural Development plans to use waste material to build roads in rural areas with low traffic volumes
15 July, 2013
Vocational Education: A means to an end? Pushkar Maita and Subha Mani discuss the results from their impact evaluation which experimented with providing vocational training to women from lower-income areas in Delhi
11 July, 2013
Listening to Clients in Tanzania: Client Insights on Using Mobile Money : At a basic level, understanding people is about listening to them, but in ways that prompt meaningful and relevant comments from those intended to benefit from financial inclusion.
10 July,2013
Financial Inclusion- Blurred Lines, Sharper Vision : What’s most telling and interesting is how national governments themselves view financial inclusion. One of most direct ways to learn about governments’ vision of financial inclusion is to study how they measure inclusion.
9 July, 2013
Mobiles for social change : Not many of us are aware of the role that mobile phones can play to trigger social and behavioral changes in India. This articles looks at few such examples.
8 July, 2013
Top 7 Opportunities for Funders to Advance Microinsurance : The Funder Discussion Group of the Microinsurance Network (MIN) includes donors and investors supporting microinsurance. The group has identified “7 Top Opportunities” for funders to contribute to the healthy development of the sector, illustrated by a sample of activities carried out by the Network and its members.
5 July, 2013
Amartya Sen: Why is China Ahead of India? - Liveblog and Webcast : Why is China ahead of India? One answer is that India has paid inadequate attention to the lessons of Asian economic development, which gives a crucial role to the rapid expansion of human capability as a part of pursuing fast economic growth. A critical part of that strategy has been the use of public revenue, itself expanded by economic growth, to remove huge deficiencies in social, educational and health services, and to meet the growing demands of social and physical infrastructure, while making public services more accountable and efficiently organized.
4 July, 2013
Behind low rates of participation in micro-insurance: a misunderstanding of the insurance concept? : Micro-insurance pilot programs begin with grand hopes that the target population will enroll and obtain program benefits, but many are disappointed that after much planning and effort so few actually take up the program. There are various reasons for low take-up, but there is one aspect that hasn’t received enough attention : the popular misunderstanding of what insurance does.
3 July, 2013
How the Poor are Saving for Change : An article on a three year in-depth study evaluating the joint Savings for Change (SfC) program in Mali.
2 July, 2013
Smart Policy:Why Islamic Banks Matter in Indonesia : Policy discussions around Islamic bank development in Indonesia have largely taken place in the context of increasing financial access, especially to micro, small, and medium enterprises, or MSMEs. With Sharia-compliant banks more accessible and responsive to MSME financing needs, outpacing conventional bank outreach to these enterprises, Islamic Banks may matter in Indonesia.
1 July, 2013
Are microfinance repayments suffering in Tamil Nadu? : The assertion of repayment problems in Tamil Nadu and the reasons and assumptions put forth by a recent article on CGAP do not corroborate with the experience and data of IFMR Capital.
June 2013
28 June, 2013
Emerging Risks on China’s Path Towards Financial Inclusion | Center for Financial Inclusion Blog : Last week saw a sharp increase in the China’s short-term borrowing costs and a record high in the country’s interbank overnight rate - a rate that serves as a gauge of liquidity in a market. It has been asserted that financial institutions need to improve “awareness about preventing risks.”
27 June, 2013
Democratizing Data to Increase Transparency, Access, and Knowledge for the New Generation of Latin Americans : The rise of the vulnerable and middle classes across Latin America present a big opportunity for financial inclusion. It's important that consumers have the information they need to make rational decisions about financial products and providers.
26 June, 2013
Mexico’s Tiered KYC: An Update on Market Response : In August 2011 Mexico approved a tiered scheme for opening deposit accounts at credit institutions. This scheme implements risk-based account opening requirements for low-value accounts. The innovation here is that it incorporated several “levels” of simplified accounts. The following article by CGAP gives a comprehensible insight into the scheme.
25 June, 2013
REFILE-Studies on Mexico microlender shed light on profit, poverty : A pair of studies have found that Mexico's Microfinancing bank Compartamos, accused by activists of exploiting poor borrowers with exorbitant interest rates, has generally helped people but could cut the interest it charges without hurting its bottom line.
24 June, 2013
Maharashtra to get 15,000 micro-ATMs from Centre for rural inclusion : Good news for Maharashtra! To facilitate Financial Inclusion, Maharashtra will get around 15,000 micro-ATMs from the Centre. It is proposed that 50% of Aadhar card machines in the state will be shifted from schools to housing societies to facilitate the penetration. Do you think this is a good move or is there a better plan of action?
21 June, 2013
Can Islamic Banking Offer Some Lessons to Islamic Microfinance? : "Just as Islamic banking and finance faced unique challenges while integrating with the international financial markets, Islamic microfinance appears to be experiencing similar challenges within the global microfinance market. For this reason, the journey of Islamic banking and finance may offer some lessons to Islamic microfinance."
20 June, 2013
Why is the Progress of Mobile Money so Gradual and Patchy? : Everyone wants mobile money and yet it continues to do badly. This article aims to give an insight into the system and tries to explain the reasons why the progress of mobile money is slow and patchy.
18 June, 2013
Finance and Poverty: Evidence from India : Financial sector policies are not only controversial on the macro, but also micro-level. While increasing access to credit services through microfinance had for a long time a positive connotation, this has also been questioned after recent events in Andhra Pradesh, with critics charging that excessive interest rates hold the poor back in poverty. The following article discusses the strong evidence that was found for financial sector deepening having contributed to the reduction of rural poverty rates across India.
17 June, 2013
Does Outpatient Care Through Microinsurance Offer Value? : Health insurance may end up costing clients more than their current alternatives. Hence to address the question, "what can a microinsurance product covering outpatient care do for clients who experience an illness?" the MILK team studied The KNCU Health Plan.
14 June, 2013
FAI Video: Shawn Cole Discusses Microinsurance & Factors Affecting Take Up (Part 2)
13 June, 2013
Sharia-Compliant Finance for MSMEs in Algeria : Algeria is banking on MSMEs to stem the high unemployment rates while boosting economic health. However Financial Services remain an integral part of any such effort. With the youth reluctant to use these services, the government is providing a Sharia-compliant product - an affordable, profit- and loss-sharing scheme.
12 June, 2013
The World Bank, UN, and The Economist are all talking about it: growing income around the world. It isn’t just the wealthy or the well-connected who benefit from this growth but the real incomes are rising among the poor too. Here is an article and an analysis which inspect the effect of this growth on Financial Inclusion.
Global Movement into the Vulnerable Class, and What it Means for Financial Inclusion: http://bit.ly/193zk4W
Growing Income, Growing Inclusion : http://bit.ly/13BbZWi
11 June, 2013
Loan defaults Vs Over Indebedtness in TN: Repayment defaults don't necessarily mean Over-indebtedness. This article gives an insight into the effect of “Liquidity defaults” and "Strategic defaults" in rural Tamil Nadu.
10 June, 2013
A social media platform for the rural masses : Social networking has proved to be a very convenient form of expression for the masses. This was the motivation behind Mobile Vaani, an interactive voice response (IVR) system that sees itself as the Facebook and Twitter for people at the bottom of the pyramid.
07 June, 2013
Comparing Branchless Banking in Bangladesh and Pakistan :Bangladesh is a recent entrant into branchless banking - deployments only began in earnest in the middle of 2011. CGAP reviewed the first year of branchless banking (referred to as “mobile financial services” in Bangladesh) together with Bangladesh Bank up to March 2012. At that time, Bangladesh had only a year’s worth of experience, but in its second year up through March 2013 Bangladesh has made an 8-fold jump in accounts and agents.
06 June, 2013
Micro-finance as a tool to eradicate poverty is undergoing rigorous analysis all over the world. Here are three articles from three countries - U.S, Mexico and India. Can transfer of information and practices across national boarders help MFI's move in the direction of the article 'A Challenge to Flat earth thinking in Micro-finance' (link below)?
U.S Financial Diaries: http://bit.ly/ZuC8W3
On avoiding repayment crisis in Mexico: http://bit.ly/11t5m8i
On how Utkarsh Microfinance handles customer grievance:http://bit.ly/15D00aP
Flat earth thinking in Micro-finance: http://bit.ly/12FMAtX
U.S Financial Diaries: http://bit.ly/ZuC8W3
On avoiding repayment crisis in Mexico: http://bit.ly/11t5m8i
On how Utkarsh Microfinance handles customer grievance:http://bit.ly/15D00aP
Flat earth thinking in Micro-finance: http://bit.ly/12FMAtX
05 June, 2013
FAI Video: Shawn Cole Discusses Microinsurance (Part 1) : Shawn Cole, one of CMF's Principal Researchers, discusses findings from several experiments on rainfall insurance in India and Index Insurance Products which validate the hypothesis that managing risk can improve the profitability of investment decisions
04 June, 2013
A National Experiment: Sharia-Compliant Finance in Sudan : With governments still struggling to bring citizens into the financial mainstream, the Central Bank of Sudan sets an example using experience as its only guide. How suitable is this for India?
03 June, 2013
Pudhuaaru KGFS Turns Five : In five years, the KGFS branch in Karambayam has enrolled 2076 unique households with multiple members from each household signing up. It has infused credit of Rs. 114 million into this local economy which have been utilised for retiring informal loans, purchase of livestock, expansion of agricultural activities and house repairs among others.
