Image by Gram Vaani In order to identify ICT based applications that rural women use or can use for livelihood services, we are speaking to experts who have done groundbreaking work in these fields. We highlight out takeaways from our conversations so far, in this blog post. Takeaway 1: The need for… Continue reading Mobile Enabled Services for Rural Women
Hazratganj is the most unique tourist spot of Lucknow. With its unique architecture and uniformly painted shops, this place speaks much of its heritage. It is the main shopping area situated at the heart of the city and dates back to 1827, the year in which its foundation was laid by Nawab Nasiruddin Haider.… Continue reading People of Bharat: Mukesh, Lucknow
Image by azadjain1 on Shutterstock As a nation, we have been hearing and discussing recent farm bills (turned Acts now). While we are still understanding the barriers of the market, it is vital to also understand the barriers to capital. For both capital and market are important for the success of farmer organisations. Going forward,… Continue reading With great crisis comes great reforms!
Image by aqabiz on iStock In spite of the pandemic scare on our research survey, we were successfully able to complete the survey across states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and NCR markets — covering 416 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in rural, semi-urban and urban markets. Of course, reaching out to only rural MSMEs was… Continue reading Decoding MSME Personas through Primary Data Collection
Image by Roxanne Shewchuk from Pexels In our previous blog we looked at an ideal, architectural solution for the community economy from a data cooperatives perspective. That eventually led us to seek out the real world equivalents, and the extent to which the current architecture can be leveraged, and what we can learn from the existing implementations.… Continue reading Cooperatives as Data Fiduciaries
I spot Shashikala’s house in a distance and the first thought that strikes me is the pink colour on the outer walls. Recently whitewashed, it stands out among the other two-room houses in the same row in the Vada Madurai area in Coimbatore. I note a satellite TV connection on the roof as I… Continue reading People of Bharat: Shashikala, Coimbatore
Image by: rupixen from Pixabay ‘Yes, the lockdown is over. We have started operations now. But it’s like walking on one leg,’ says the owner of a small textile unit in Coimbatore. He explained how many of these units are running at only half or one-third of the capacity. It’s true across the country. According to a… Continue reading As more MSMEs open up, liquidity problems remain
In this blog, we discuss the findings of a survey conducted with members of mutual and cooperative insurers in the three Indian states — Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (states with the highest density of mutual and cooperative insurers). This blog compares typical characteristics of mutual and cooperative insurers versus actual on-ground observable evidence,… Continue reading Comparing Reality vs. Theory: Indian Mutual & Cooperative Insurers
I wind my way deep into the streets — into lanes and by-lanes and find myself at the house of Bhargavi. The house is really two rooms, one of which is the kitchen. Bhargavi later tells me it has been partitioned off from the ancestral property of her husband’s family. I guess these rooms… Continue reading People of Bharat: Bhargavi, Bengaluru
Photo by CRSPhoto on Shutterstock Aashish was on his two-wheeler, riding on a dusty road in some small town in the central state of India. He had yesterday’s matchmaking meeting for his marriage running in his mind. One old man from the prospective bride’s side asked him, ‘The post of CEO of a Farmer… Continue reading Ease of doing business: Still some miles to go for an FPO
Image by Imam Fathoni on iStock Today as I sit down to write this blog, I suddenly remember a conversation that I had this afternoon with a seasoned banker and investor from Singapore — Asia’s financial capital. It revolved around MSMEs and how Singapore is striving to achieve a balanced approach to fund them. I was… Continue reading MSMEs – “Atma-Nirbhar”: Resilience through self-sustenance
In our previous blogs we had discussed how the nature of jobs is changing to Gigs and the problems India will face in the near future, if data ownership isn’t considered in designing the future platforms that takes into account all aspects of a gig worker’s well being. In our next blog, we delved… Continue reading Looking beyond the Gig Economy