Category: Opinions

Banks not passing on rate cuts points to a lack of intensity in price competition and calls for increasing the number of lenders

For the first time, the majority of Indian women have been financially included. Fresh data show that the proportion of Indian women with individual accounts in formal financial institutions (primarily banks) reached 61% in 2015, a sharp increase from 48% in 2014, lagging men by only eight percentage points.

Imagine you are a labourer in a village in Odisha and have painstakingly completed your Aadhaar formalities (for which you gave a proof of permanent address and your fingerprints).

These fraudulent messages have proliferated during the pandemic, where fraudsters induce panic or excitement that impairs the customers’ ability to think clearly.

The microfinance industry has witnessed moves by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to revise the regulatory framework (March 2022) for it and also caution it against an exclusive focus on business growth (November 2022).

Insurance companies should align their sales practices to generate the best outcomes for low income households by ensuring easy access to a variety of products with disclosures that provide accurate information.

The promise of SP-ODEs is compelling but it is worth reiterating that deploying them would not automatically translate into better welfare delivery.

Tremendous efforts have gone into creating new authoritiessuch as the Central Consumer Protection Authority.

Low-income households work with irregular income inflows, resulting in shrinking financial planning horizon and necessitating frequent decisions in response to frequent changes.

Indian households and businesses hold their wealth primarily in physical assets like real estate, gold, and durables, while barely investing in any financial assets.