Photo by Uplift Mutuals In this blog, we discuss emerging insights from our current study on mutuals in India and try to answer frequently- asked questions on mutuals. Which are these organisations running mutual insurance? Till now, we have identified 21 mutual insurers in India, who meet our definition of a mutual… Continue reading Insuring Bharat: Q & A on Indian Mutuals
Growing in the village of Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh, is wild Kiwi — a high value food product with an increasing demand. The State Horticulture Department introduced a domestic variety of the fruit 20 years ago, and it quickly gained popularity in the region. Tage Rita Takhe, a Ziro local, established her very own… Continue reading The Market Access Conundrum
I take the stairs to the third floor to avoid using the lift. As the cases of COVID-19 rise in Bengaluru, one can’t be too careful. This is the building where Sumant works as a security guard and I arrive to find him seated just within the glass doors of the company’s office. He… Continue reading People of Bharat: Sumant, Bengaluru
Photo by PrathanChorruangsak on iStock When we decided to work on understanding the role of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) in bringing about financial inclusion of the marginalised communities, we had made a very structured and detailed timeline for all the activities pretty much in line with a professional project management case. However, an unexpected delay stormed… Continue reading FPO Research: A Few Perspectives
By ARAVIND TEKI on Shutterstock AC Equipment is a Pune-based manufacturing enterprise involved in supplying automotive parts to one of the bigger firms, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) based in the city. It has been in existence for over 2 years with an annual turnover of more than INR 150 lakhs. It has in-hand orders but is… Continue reading Credit and Tabula Rasa MSMEs
It has been a year of transitions for workforces around the world. We have firstly gone remote, essentials only and socially distant. As the nature of work evolves, so do the skills required to adapt and survive in the new ecosystem.These transitions are not the result of Covid-19 alone. They have been in the… Continue reading Data Ownership & Gig Economy Knowledge Workers’ Perspectives
Photo by Matyas Rehak on Shutterstock Insurance has an important role to play in agricultural risk management borne out of the ever-increasing instances of extreme weather events globally. However, its contribution to risk reduction and resilience depends upon the quality of the insurance tool; and whether it has been designed to respond efficiently to the needs… Continue reading Meso-level Index Insurance in Practice
‘Did you have lunch?’ I ask Narayan. ‘No madam and no breakfast either.’ I arrange a South-Indian meal for him and encourage him to settle down while we wait for his lunch to arrive. At first he is restless and walks around the office looking at the posters on the walls. As lunch arrives,… Continue reading People of Bharat: Narayan, Bengaluru
Photo by Héctor J. Rivas on Unsplash One among the many, that the coronavirus pandemic highlighted, amplified — is the complicated relationship Tirupur, a textile cluster in Tamil Nadu has with China. Tirupur exports about Rs 26,000 crore worth of textile products primarily to Europe and US. It also has a domestic sales of about Rs 24,000… Continue reading Tirupur’s complicated relationship with China
Last year around this time if you would have asked any VC investor about the alternative protein sector or vegan meat products, it would have been a reflex movement to brag all about the success of Beyond Meat, the poster boy of vegan meat. But we have come a long way since then, and this is… Continue reading The Booming Alternative Protein Sector
Eko India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. started in 2007 as a business correspondent (BC) for banks, providing account-opening and cash-in/cash-out (CICO) services for non/underbanked Indian customers. Brothers Abhishek and Abhinav Sinha co-founded Eko. Over the years, responding to multiple opportunities that presented themselves and changing regulations, Eko developed a domestic money transfer solution through its… Continue reading Eko: Scaling up a fintech start-up in volatile market and regulatory environments
Image by Uplift Mutuals In India setting up an insurance company is not easy with a blanket minimum capital requirement of INR 100 crores irrespective of risks or geographical coverage. We seem to have an undeclared policy of having a large number of insurance distributors and a small number of insurance manufacturers — India… Continue reading Let a thousand flowers bloom