Staff Directory

Leena Datwani

Financial Sector Specialist

Leena Datwani is a financial sector specialist. She works with stakeholders to develop an ecosystem that enables digital finance to better serve the financial needs of the poor in India. Before joining CGAP, she had a leadership role at the H.A.N.D. Foundation and worked on the World Bank’s World Development Report.

Leena holds an Master’s in International Economics and International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and Economics from William Smith College. She is based in New Delhi, India.

By Leena Datwani

Blog

How Can Embedded Financial Services Better Serve Platform Workers?

Platforms’ extensive data on their workers could support customized product design, and their digital rails could seamlessly deliver financial services. What opportunities might financial services embedded within platforms enable?
Blog

Last-Mile Consumer Finance: Embracing Opportunity, Managing Risk

Last-mile distributors around the world are working to increase low-income households' access to solar systems, cookstoves, water purifiers and other important assets. Many offer financing to customers. How are they managing credit risk?
Blog

Can JioMart and Facebook Revolutionize Traditional Retail in India?

Facebook and the Indian grocery shopping platform JioMart in April announced a partnership that sent ripples through India's e-commerce and e-grocer sectors. What could this partnership mean for small business owners in India?
Blog

Will Facebook Soon Dominate Digital Payments in India, Indonesia?

As Facebook enters the highly regulated space of digital payments in India and Indonesia, it is partnering with local players to connect its virtual ecosystem with the cash economy, gain access to logistics networks and overcome regulatory hurdles.
Research

India's New Approach to Personal Data-Sharing

As more and more people begin to conduct transactions online, questions have emerged about how to provide millions of customers adequate data protection and privacy. India's solution to this challenge is account aggregators (AA).