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Customer Focus Brings Green Technology to Rural Women in India

Customer-centricity means understanding people's financial needs and realities. Sistema.bio in India uses this approach to offer affordable biodigesters to rural women, leveraging carbon credits.

Seven Insights From Samunnati on Income Diversification

In collaboration with CGAP and IDH under ABERA, Samunnati drives business innovation and gender and climate goals. Together, they've identified seven insights on income diversification for women in India, detailed in this blog.

Trust and Awareness Will Be Key for Open Finance Adoption in India

India is pioneering open finance in developing economies, with 64 million accounts linked through its Account Aggregator ecosystem as of March 2024. As India continues to scale the ecosystem, early insights could help shape AA's future direction.

Lessons From 4 Examples on the Leading Edge of Climate-Focused G2P

All G2P programs contribute to climate adaptation to some extent, with examples in India, Ethiopia, Kenya, and the Philippines showing us how specific program design features can support greater climate adaptation for recipients and their households.

Maturing India Stack Drives Digital Financial Inclusion of Gig Workers

India Stack, India’s robust DPI, supports a host of financial services products for harder-to-reach segments like gig workers – a good example for other countries that want to leverage digitization of work for financial inclusion of informal workers.

Doing Good by Doing Well: Women Banking Agents in India

In India's Bihar state, women Bank Sakhi agents help enable financial inclusion for rural, vulnerable, and hard-to-reach customers, more so than the traditional agents - but various gender norms constrain how they operate. We discuss solutions.

Regulators Eye Digital Credit in India: What Does it Mean for MSEs?

The growth of India’s fintech industry has historically been driven by digital payments, but now digital credit is poised to take the reins. But what is digital credit, and how can its regulation help narrow the credit gap for India’s MSEs?

Maximizing the Impact of Financial Inclusion for Young Women

Among which segments of young women could investments in improved financial services make the most impact? We highlight findings from a recent CGAP segmentation exercise.

High Tech, High Touch: Bringing Formal Loans to Rural India

Despite its success developing digital public infrastructure to enable inclusive financial development, India still faces challenges in bringing formal credit to rural and low-income households. A new app supported by CGAP aims to provide a solution.

We Agree – Life Stages Likely Impact DFS Usage Among Young Women

Certain life stages have a significant impact on women’s economic empowerment and use of financial services - particularly for young women.

Analyzing Social Media to Spot Digital Consumer Credit Risks in India

Last year, news reports emerged of aggressive debt collection amid India's digital credit boom. New research shows that early warning signs on social media preceded the reports, highlighting the value of social media for consumer protection.

Digital Consumer Credit in India – Time to Take a Closer Look

As media reports of abusive lending practices emerge amid India’s digital consumer credit boom, the country can steer digital credit in a more promising direction by ramping up its efforts to listen to consumers and taking the necessary actions.

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?

Data Privacy Concerns Influence Financial Behaviors in India, Kenya

For digital financial services providers looking for a competitive edge in developing economies, better data privacy features could be the answer, according to CGAP research from India and Kenya.

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.

India’s Proposed Data Protection Bill Breaks from Notice and Consent

The proposed bill would mark a significant advance in rethinking how to protect digital consumer rights, putting India at the forefront of modern data protection regimes.

India Moves Toward Universal Financial Inclusion

The 2017 Findex shows India has made significant financial inclusion progress in the past four years, but use remains a challenge.

Bank-Led Digital Finance: Who’s Really Leading?

In countries where regulators favor “bank-led” digital finance models, nonbanks are playing important – even dominant – roles in digital finance.

Empowering Kids to Dream, Save, Do

When should children start learning about financial empowerment? The early years are the best, according to Sesame Workshop India. Find out how Sesame has taught 50 million children in India about spending, saving and other life skills.

What Most Providers Don’t Realize About Microentrepreneurs

Conventional measures of creditworthiness paint an incomplete — even misleading — picture of microbusiness owners, whose success often hinges on strong local networks and unconventional business strategies.