Salim Ashraf, who is now 49, was born and raised in Bengaluru. He lives in a small but comfortable two bed-room house in Bamboo Bazaar, Bengaluru. His house is surrounded with shops selling bamboo furniture and ladders. He lives here with his wife who is a home maker, and his two sons aged 14… Continue reading People of Bharat: Salim Ashraf, Bengaluru
Photo by Rhiannon from Pixabay ‘If we want to know what a business is we have to start with its purpose. And its purpose must lie outside of the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society since a business enterprise is an organ of society.’ ~ Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management In… Continue reading MSME Growth: Five Questions to Ask
Image by Uplift Mutuals 1. Insurance market — a fast growth, but for Bharat a long road ahead The Indian insurance market is growing faster than the global market. During 2018–19, the total insurance premium in India increased by 9.3 % whereas global total insurance premium increased by 1.5 %. However, we still… Continue reading Insuring Bharat: Incremental Growth & The Long Road Ahead
“Why should I pay for an unnecessary insurance bundle when I just need one or two products?” asks Kumar, the owner of a fabric shop in Delhi. Like many of his fellow traders, Kumar runs a small shop in a crowded, narrow street of Chandni Chowk, one of India’s oldest markets. Low-hanging, rundown electric… Continue reading Riskcovry: Insurance-in-a-box
Gig workers have been facing the brunt of the coronavirus outbreak. This blog highlights the story of a FinTech startup, MIMO, which uses technology to connect service providers to its end customers through gig workers. Learn how MIMO supports gig workers in these tough times. India has 15 million gig workers or around 40%… Continue reading MIMO — Bridging the digital gap for the rural workforce
Image Source: Development News Evidence based research has developed a strong case for mobile phones aiding in women’s entrepreneurial ventures. With a mobile handset and an active internet connection, women get 24/7 access to worldwide e-business channels, which can be operated from anywhere in real time (Hilbert, 2011). It can also be a valuable tool… Continue reading Finding Replicable Solutions To Women’s Livelihood Challenges
Around the world, small and marginal farmers get a meagre share of the overall value created in the agriculture supply chain. This is mainly due to three critical inefficiencies, as highlighted in Figure 1. PayAgri is a platform for farmers that works to overcome them and optimize returns for the farmers. The founders of… Continue reading PayAgri: Transforming the lives of small and marginal farmers
A story of four “monks” using private commissioned blockchain technology to improve accountability in a registered chit fund and how they are impacted by COVID-19 Vijay Babu-a 45-year-old entrepreneur, Gowri-a 29-year-old house help, and Venkata Garu-a 57-year-old government employee, are residents of the same city. These individuals have another thing in common-they save… Continue reading ChitMonks: Simplifying chit funds
Photo by Akash Badave of Bhoomgadi A farmer producer organisation (FPO) or simply a producer organisation (PO) is a collectivisation of the primary producers. Quite unlike the name, they can be farm or non-farm related producers. It is not unnatural to collectivise say even rural artists or weavers to form a PO. A PO has… Continue reading FPOs — Genesis and Evolution
Photo by GCShutter on iStock Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises form the backbone of manufacturing sector of India. Roughly there are 65 million MSMEs in the country across Service and Manufacturing sectors. This sector is vast and diversified. Combined together, the MSME industry is the largest contributor of employment in the country, attributing to around 25%… Continue reading Developing Sustainable Financial Access for MSMEs
Photo by ManeeshUpadhyay on ShutterStock Current State of Affairs The labour ministry’s draft code defines a gig worker as a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement; and earns from such activities outside of a traditional employer-employee relationship. Going by this broad definition the number of Indian gig economy workers are 426 million… Continue reading Data Ownership and the Gig Economy
Photo by triloks on iStock In India, the government plays an active role in providing insurance cover to the agricultural sector through highly subsidized micro-insurance schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) since 2016, the National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP) since 2015, and the Livestock Insurance scheme since 2006. These schemes have improved upon… Continue reading Meso-level Insurance for Agricultural Risk Management