I stand outside the door of her flat and ring the bell. Then I step back and see pictures of both Christ and Ganesha on the door. This is Neeta’s house, a woman who sells sprouts in a local vegetable market in the southern part of the town of Surat in Gujarat. Neeta welcomes… Continue reading People of Bharat: Neeta, Surat
Photo by Thunderstock on Shutterstock. When we started with the idea of Project Kish, we were enthralled by the blank canvas we had and the work that we could do in this regard. But as we went along, we quickly realized that an idea so radical needed a radical solutioning approach. Where a captive designer would give… Continue reading The difficulty of being earnest
Photo by RawPixel on Shutterstock “ It is better to be unique than the best. Because, being the best makes you the number one, but being unique makes you the only one.” Justice A.K Sikri announced his judgement on the writ petition of 2012 on Aadhaar’s validity on 26th September, 2018. On that day, Suresh… Continue reading It is better to be unique than the best
Digital Verified Resumes could let domestic help share past records, contact numbers, police verifications, and testimonials with prospective employers. Estimates from the Ministry of Labour and Employment suggest India is home to 400 million individuals working in unorganised sectors; this is more than 90 percent of our total active workforce. ILO estimates that… Continue reading Digital verified resumes for domestic workers
Kartik sits on a low parapet, sipping tea with his fellow workmates. He works as a housekeeping staff for an agency contracting housekeeping jobs for large offices and institutions. His current contract involves a premier college in Ahmedabad. The college campus echoes with the calls of peacocks, cuckoos and chirping of squirrels. Kartik smiles with… Continue reading People of Bharat: Karthik, Ahmedabad
Hirabhai sits across from me at a wooden table in the canteen of the college where he works as a peon. His arms are crossed defensively across his chest as he answers my questions about his income and savings. “Why are you asking me these questions? Is something coming up?”, he asks anxiously. I… Continue reading People of Bharat: Hirabhai, Ahmedabad
Photo by Saranya Loisamutr on Shutterstock Research on motivations to spend or save has been of both theoretical and applied interests. Multiple disciplines have attempted to decode the mechanics of spending or saving by individuals and households using different lenses to the same question — how, why and when do individuals spend or save? Researchers… Continue reading What motivates the financial decisions of urban poor households?
Photo by Matias Planas on Shutterstock. In line with other research, we find considerable effects of age, gender and literacy levels on interaction with smartphones and app based financial and agricultural information solutions. Through focus group discussions with micro, small and medium farmers across the three states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Nagaland, we find… Continue reading Adoption and usage: What else should we consider?
Ajmal is reticent. He cautiously steps out of his makeshift tenement on the margins of the kiln site. He is off work this afternoon. He plans to spend his time lying on the mud floor of his sparse quarter, on top of a plastic gunny bag. His children, an infant and a toddler, giggle unattended… Continue reading People of Bharat: Ajmal, Mumbai
Photo by Andre Nery on Shutterstock. With the advent of digital payments, financial technology provides a great opportunity to achieve the goal of financial inclusion in countries like India. As we describe in an earlier blog, in this study, we will be using the ecosystems approach and behavioral interventions to increase (i) knowledge about, (ii) acceptability… Continue reading Financial Ecosystems and Digital Payments: Insights from Karnataka
Project Kish is named after The Kish tablet. A limestone tablet from the Sumer region inscribed with pictographic proto-cuneiform signs. Dated 3500 BC, it is one of earliest type of communication systems to work across languages. https://www.projectkish.org This reflects the thought process of the project itself which seeks to create a graphical language for… Continue reading Project Kish — Making Legal Language Accessible
As per the latest estimates, there are about 100 million blue-collar workers in urban India, largely employed in the ever-expanding urban informal sector[1]. This sector represents a wide range of unskilled and semi-skilled avenues of contractual or casual employment. The blue-collar segment includes service providers like plumbers, gardeners, drivers and domestic helpers, alongside individuals who… Continue reading Matter of utmost liquidity — why take chit funds online