Publications
Academic Articles

Report on Indian and Urban Infrastructure and Services
This report concludes that without active facilitation of urbanization, India’s economic growth momentum cannot be sustained. It argues that the challenge of managing urbanisation will have to be addressed through a combination of increased investment, strengthening the framework for governance and financing, and a comprehensive capacity building programme at all levels of government.

Report of the Technology Group for Unique Projects
The Ministry of Finance published this report in January 2011 to address challenges, such as human resource issues, appropriate placement of tasks etc, faced by large complex IT projects in the government. It then uses this framework for evaluating and presenting recommendations for the same projects, along the lines of design, implementation, accountability and transparency issues amongst others. The projects are namely the TIN for Income Tax applications, ICES for Customs, ACES for Excise and Service Tax along with an IT system for organized financial trading.

MFI Pricing and Valuation – An analysis of key drivers
This paper presents a framework for pricing micro loans for MFIS which helps in understanding the various components of pricing. It also discusses possible reasons for variations in prevailing interest rates and underlying relationships between operating costs and various parameters of growth and efficiency.

Financing microfinance – The ICICI Bank partnership mode
Capital is the primary constraining factor for the scaling up of microfinance in India. With analyses of the traditional financing models and ICICI Bank’s experience, Bindu Ananth explores the partnership model of scaling up microfinance institutions in India in this paper published in Small Enterprise Development.

Appointment and Management of Aggregators for NPS-Lite
This paper by IFMR Finance Foundation provides a framework and details the guidelines to select aggregators who can reach NPS-Lite to those eligible in remote rural areas.

Effect of Competition on Default and Interest Rates in the Microfinance Sector: Some Theoretical Ideas
One of the most debated issues in the microfinance sector is the effect of multiple micro lenders on client default. In this paper Ratul Lahkar discusses the theoretical basis underlying this debate under two probable scenarios.

Access to Micro-Savings for Remote Rural India – A technical note
This technical note by S G Anil Kumar and Nitin Chaudhary details one of IFMR Rural Finance Company’s innovative savings product, money market mutual fund, that provides for the first time in the country the much-needed savings product for low income households in remote rural areas which is liquid, principal-protected and offers small ticket size savings option.

Inclusive Financial Systems – The way ahead
Financial exclusion persists despite significant efforts. This Banking and Finance article by Nachiket Mor describes the existing challenges and delves deep into the financial system design calling for a clear guide for action based responses on the 2020 vision.

Deepening Financial Access in India – A Blue Print for Commercial Banks
Despite government efforts since the 1950s to universalize access to finance, there still remains a huge population that remains outside the formal financial system. The Business Correspondent model, initiated by the RBI in 2006 and enhanced in scope thereafter, offers significant opportunity to deepen financial access by creating an extensive network of village level touch points. This paper by Bindu Ananth and Asha Krishnakumar details the model and provides a framework for commercial banks to use the BC model in their financial inclusion efforts.

Universalising Complete Access to Finance: Key Conceptual Issues
While the functions of finance remain stable across contexts, it is particularly relevant for low income households who are excluded from the formal financial system. In this paper Suyash Rai, Bindu Ananth and Nachiket Mor describe the basic design concepts – channel design, and product design and delivery – of delivering financial access to low income households.