‘Kya kaam hai Ji? Bolo!’(What do you want?) I see a man walking restlessly towards me. He wants to know why am I standing so close to the compound gate. He is Samil Pasha, the care-taker of a poultry farm. When he ascertains I am no trespasser, he invites me in. And suddenly we… Continue reading People of Bharat: Samil Pasha, Hyderabad
Healthcare is the most imperative need for any household. The expenses and time spent on it can sometimes be staggering. Especially for the hapless gig economy worker whose needs have been relatively ignored. Healthcare expenses usually involve direct and indirect costs. And these indirect costs can be staggering, especially for an ordinary individual… Continue reading Healthcare access for Gig economy workers
Ben Horowitz, in his book ‘Hard Things about Hard Things,’ sums up the importance of building a healthy company culture – “A healthy company culture encourages people to share bad news. A company that discusses its problems freely and openly can quickly solve them.” A startup, at its core, is a problem… Continue reading How important are ‘People’ to a startup, especially while scaling up?
I walk down a narrow dirt road, lined with trees on both sides. The road bends towards the left and I find her — a middle-aged woman; hose in hand, watering a small grove of betel nut trees. I notice pepper vines are clinging to each betel tree; and pineapple plants border the boundary… Continue reading People of Bharat: Selly Maushi, Udupi
Image by Sonia Dhankhar on Shutterstock In our previous blog post, we highlighted the case of farmers who use their smartphones to access entertainment/social media applications (see Figure 1) but at the same time cite lack of digital literacy and familiarity with technology as barriers to adopting digital agricultural/financial services. In general, this is consistent with existing research… Continue reading Smartphone applications for farmers — insights on design-related challenges
Photo by By Mahin Badusha on Shutterstock The study of household finance has been concerned with how households use and ought to use financial markets to achieve their objectives. A vast majority of Indian households are either inexperienced or new to the concept of using financial markets to achieve their objectives. In this setting, one of the… Continue reading Retail Financial Markets with Inexperienced and New Financial Consumers
Photo by By Saurav022 on Shutterstock Prateekbhai tells me most of his collection is European. “These are Hungarian,” he says with pride, as he points to two beautiful specimens. I shuffle my feet rooted in a small village along the coast of South Gujarat, where Prateekbhai shows me his prized pigeons. I am in a hatch, surrounded… Continue reading People of Bharat: Prateekbhai, Navsari
Photo by Saurav022 on Shutterstock Usually financial habits of a household are gauged through their cash management strategies, income-expense flows, investment in human capital, stock of physical and financial assets, borrowings, and transfers. In our ongoing survey of slum households in Chennai, we captured these details through an initial survey and conducted follow-up interviews with these households… Continue reading Ration shops with a banking rationale?
Boom Country? The New Wave of Indian Enterprise by Alan Rosling is a detailed, investigated narrative about the past and present entrepreneurial landscape of India with an overtone that brings to attention the future possibilities for entrepreneurship. The book originates from a deep, personal wrestle with the author’s own entrepreneurial intention and examines the multi-dimensional… Continue reading Boom Country? The New Wave of Indian Enterprise
Running for cover: access to insurance in India According to a report published by Lloyd’s late last year, India has the second largest insurance gap in the world. Insurance gap is the difference between insurance cover availed and the actual cost of recovering from major catastrophic events. For instance, if an individual needs insurance… Continue reading Insurance as value-added service for low income customers
Bhanuben 46, is a native of Morbi in Saurashtra, but was born, raised and married in Ahmedabad. She lives in an urban settlement in Ahmedabad. I ask her if she is married. She bursts out giggling in response. Of course she is married! I tick it off in the form. Bhanuben tells me she… Continue reading People of Bharat: Bhanuben, Ahmedabad
Photo by India Picture on Shutterstock. In our previous blog post, we summarized preliminary findings from our ongoing work on the various factors influencing user learning and experience in the context of smartphone based digital agri-service/financial apps for the farmer segment. Here, we highlight and discuss an interesting anomaly when it comes to the usage of mobile… Continue reading The curious case of the farmer with the smartphone