18 Jan 2021: 50th Foundation Year Lecture by Prof. Thankom Arun
50th Foundation year lecture series- Webinar on “Mainstreaming financial inclusion” by Professor Thankom Arun, The University of Essex, UK (18th January 2021)
Abstract: The seminar will examine the challenges in managing the sustainable relationship between financial institutions, processes and outcome in mainstreaming financial inclusion agenda in India in a global context. We discuss the findings of an ongoing project on the same topic and explores two critical challenges of mainstreaming the financial inclusion agenda. First, we model the double-bind problem that providers of banking services for the poor face as they struggle to achieve economies of scale, while account balances are low. Second, we examined the impact of information networks, namely media and social networks on the financial decisions of households in India. Both the demand and supply side perspectives put enormous pressures on the mainstreaming agenda of financial inclusion.