Rural Finance

Rural Finance Knowledge Index

2010-03-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

Rural Finance is about providing financial services for people living in rural areas. This Rural Finance blog aims to assist individuals & volunteers working in rural areas to build their capacity to deliver improved financial services which meet the needs of rural households.Rural Financial Products : Rural Finance is also about financial products which are at the heart of a financial service

Common Man Budget

2010-02-28T01:22:00.000-08:00

It is interesting that a common man budget impacts Rs 5 lac pa per month more than < 5 lac per monthRural India benefits have been vague other than pet scheme like NREGA and mention of rural electrification .Resource allocation for future of Agriculture / Rural India requires a vision and clear strategy which unfortunately is missingWell for time being lets celebrate that few of us are much

New Insights : Aug 2009

2009-08-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

I am writing after a long time , drive was not there as I was trying to trace what is new that can sharedToday I think I have some thing to share Over 4 million Oulets in FMCG Rural outlets in Rural India : option of using fraction of these Retail outlets as banking correspondents is pretty tempting These outlets interact with consumers closely and have good credit history of consumer ( on

e choupal news : Jan 2009

2009-01-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

What is 2000 pop village GDP ??Interesting research topic ?? :Though one may have lot of statistics to prove otherwiseI am presenting A Villager view on his village ..This village with 1500 acre land : each acre yielding Rs 10000 - Rs 20000 depending upon irrigation and number of crops : that makes to 1.5 crores - 3 crores on Income side . Now this village has 20% of agri income spend on agri

e choupal news : Dec 2008

2008-12-20T05:22:00.000-08:00

I could not but admire that rural shop keeper : He was handling so many skus : branded , unbranded , loose and packed in a small dingy shop with no visibility of inventory ( But.. He had all data in his super computer brain ) , and mutiple trading and customer accounts with varying payment period and methods ( barter / cash ) , installments .It is a interesting management lesson that ownership

e choupal news : Sept 2008

2008-09-03T05:09:00.000-07:00

Technology is making it's impact in rural India . but will it benefit is a debate .. some insights I gathered in last few visitsWith improved technology intervention ... villager convergence points , occassions and group size is reducingNow Evening ( leisure time ) no longer means village getting together and discussing problems and probable solns : It now means watching TV ( options of new

e choupal News : August 2008

2008-08-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

e choupal as a platform for people to create and develop their market and products .Can e choupal for rural development be as useful as internet , macintosh was for techies and networkers ..Can like minded Indian and global firms spearhead a revolution by helping rural india grow by having many brilliant minds working together , pooling resources for their own growth along with helping Rural

e choupal News : July 2008

2008-07-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

Choupal - a meeting place achieves a real meaning when information to discuss is more than village gossips .To create a new revolution in rural India choupal has to move from information dissemination to discussion of these information more actively by villagers and incorporating it more actively in improving their lifestylesThis has been choupal challenge for last 4 years .New product

Regulating transformational branchless banking

2008-05-09T23:42:00.000-07:00

This report is a good summary of learning across various countriesAmong the countries studied, a surprising consensus surrounds the short list of most critical topics policy makers and regulators should address to formulate proportionate regulatory policy for transformational branchless banking.The report classify two topics as “necessary but not sufficient” preconditions:• Authorization to use

Microfranchising : Improving Rural Inclusion

2008-03-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

The overall objective of MicroFranchising is to promote economic development by developing sound business models that can be replicated by entrepreneurs at the base of the pyramid; therefore, the start-up costs of MicroFranchises will be minimal. The key principle is replication, replicating success to scale.It is well known that there is a lack of employment opportunities in developing countries

CFS News 15th Jan : Weather Insurance

2008-01-14T06:45:00.000-08:00

Weather Impacts Crop Production and Weather Insurance as a tool has been successfully tried out by ITC e choupal Financial Service ManagersThey have serviced sold over 150000 contracts in last 2 years and have been successful in getting repeat purchase . All this has been Retail sales without bundling ( forced ) upon through loans .Interesting isn't it ??How do they do it ??Designing Relevant

ITC echoupal way...

2007-11-29T22:56:00.000-08:00

ITC’s e-Choupal initiative; the single-largest information technology-based intervention by a corporate entity in rural India. Transforming the Indian farmer into a progressive knowledge-seeking netizen. Enriching the farmer with knowledge; elevating him to a new order of empowerment. e-Choupal delivers real-time information and customised knowledge to improve the farmer's

Providing Insurance to Low income Group

2006-08-20T04:36:00.000-07:00

Articles: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The increasing maturation and sophistication of the microfinanceindustry is producing some exciting trends. For various reasons,not the least of which is growing competition,microfinanceinstitutions (MFIs) are learningmore about the needs anddemands of theirtarget market. One of the things MFIs arehearing is that loans for microentrepreneursonly meet a small partof

Rural India's lessons in micro finance

2006-06-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

It was only last month that I attended a conference on "Risk Management in Livelihoods" organised by the Hyderabad-headquartered micro-finance organisation, BASIX.Although at one level, micro finance and livelihood promotion are struggling to become part of mainstream financial services, at another level, it is encouraging to see that private sector players in the insurance sector are actively

A life insurance policy for China

2006-04-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

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Rural finance Challenges

2006-04-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

A large proportion of the population of developing and transition economy countries and three-quarters of the developing world's poor people live in rural areas. Sustainable livelihood development in rural communities is, thus, an important process and requires efforts to help people improve their social and financial assets. Financial assets enable households to make better use of other assets,

Six Sigma Approach

2006-03-30T01:27:00.000-08:00

Delivering products and services with speed, customer satisfaction and lower cost through operations excellence is essential to achieve and sustain superior shareholder returns in businesses and governmental enterprises. Operating excellence is becoming an even bigger priority in service segments because so much of their costs are tied into operations. In fact, many analysis reveals that 30-80%

Fast Start Collecting Data on Financial Service Process

2006-03-30T00:43:00.000-08:00

n any financial service process that is being studied for the first time, it is common for Six Sigma teams to spend one-third to one-half of their project time on data collection alone. It simply takes a lot of time to figure out what data is needed, to develop a reliable data collection process and to analyze the results. Here are three tips that can help teams get a fast start on data

Check Imaging Improvements with Lean Six Sigma

2006-03-30T00:30:00.000-08:00

Moving information electronically offers tremendous opportunities for cost efficiencies and improved levels of customer satisfaction for the banking industry. But paperless processes also carry heightened risks for failure. A single process breakdown, when automated within a high-speed electronic world, can result in problems for hundreds of thousands of customers. One such process is check

Designing Financial Services with DMEDI

2006-03-30T00:22:00.000-08:00

As banking operations and check processing enters the 21st Century, so too the ways financial institutions design processes enters a new age. Long gone are the days of trial-and-error in bringing new products, services or technologies to market. Companies need to be able to implement solutions effectively -- the first time -- to provide superior customer service, while decreasing cost and

Balancing Roles and Responsibilities in Six Sigma

2006-03-30T00:20:00.000-08:00

Any new initiative in a financial services business will require some job shifting. Some people will have to stop what they have been doing and take on different responsibilities; some may be required to add new responsibilities onto an already crowded slate. Both types of reassignments are common with Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma. Organizations not only have dedicated resources, such as

Minimizing Risks: How to Apply FMEA in Services

2006-03-30T00:12:00.000-08:00

It will probably come as little surprise that something called Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) evolved at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, an environment where the interest in preventing failures is extremely high. FMEA was later popularized by the automobile industry and in recent years has become more widespread among Six Sigma practitioners. It is now seen routinely

Reducing Delays in Service Processes with Rapid Setup

2006-03-30T00:11:00.000-08:00

A P&L manager who is preparing a monthly report starts gathering the information he needs. He realizes that this month's sales figures are not broken out by region, so he calls accounting and asks for the regional split as quickly as possible. He also discovers that he has updates on only three of the four Lean Six Sigma projects in his unit. The Black Belt for the missing project is on the floor

Learning to Recognize Process Waste in Financial Services

2006-03-29T23:58:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest challenges for Six Sigma practitioners in financial services is developing the ability to recognize waste.Imagine an "overnight pack" entering Bank One's wholesale lockbox process for processing remittance payments. By the time it has been through every step, up and down the elevators, back and forth between departments, it would have traveled one-and-a-half miles. Hard to

Product Learning Guides

2006-03-29T02:00:00.000-08:00

Investment Basics Tutorial ( click here)Learning how to invest is like learning a new language. Once you pick up the basic terms and concepts, you can move step-by-step toward more sophisticated topics. Equities Tutorial ( click here )The stock market offers a full spectrum of risks and rewards. Get familiar with different types of stocks, learn the basics of buying and selling, and find out