We are conducting primary research on understanding the
ways in which rural and urban low-income households access and use financial
services from formal and informal providers, including microfinance providers.
Our work involves investigating ways in which the use of
technological solutions to enable various aspects of financial service delivery
can result in more cost-effective and scalable operations for providers, and
cheaper, better quality finance for the poor.
People involved: Aishwarya Ratan, Sunandan
Chakraborty, Pushkar V. Chitnis, Kentaro
Toyama, Indrani Medhi,
Mahesh Gogineni, Shabnam Aggarwal, Angelin Baskaran, U. Vasudha, Carol Savia
Peters, Sean Blagsvedt, Rajesh Veeraraghavan
Organisations involved: PRADAN, Ujjivan,
Ekgaon/CCD,
BASIX, Unitus,
CGAP
CURRENT WORK
>> Managing microfinance with Paper, Pen and a Digital
Slate!
We
are experimenting with a novel microfinance record management application that
runs on a low-cost digital slate prototype device. The solution combines
handwritten pen-and-paper input on ordinary paper forms, with immediate
electronic feedback. Over a nine-month period, we designed and tested a
solution that targets issues of data incompleteness, inaccuracy, and delays in
updating the microfinance records of Self-Help Groups in rural West Bengal,
India. Preliminary results indicate that the use of the digital slate
application to accept and process handwritten paper-based entries corresponds
with shorter data recording time, fewer incorrect entries, and more complete
records compared to the baseline. The digital slate solution performs as well
as, and is strongly preferred over, either a purely electronic system or a
purely paper-based system for record management in such resource-constrained
settings. Our solution is able to achieve efficiency and quality gains, while
also catering to the preferences and budgets of low-literate, low-income
clients.
PREVIOUS WORK
>> Costing tool to evaluate the financial viability of
front-end technologies for microfinance data collection/management
This Excel-based costing tool allows microfinance
institutions to perform quick, yet accurate, cost-benefit analyses when
evaluating different technology options to enhance their front-end data
collection and management processes, prior to/during pilot implementation.
Available here
PAPERS
De, Rahul and Aishwarya L. Ratan (2009, September). “Whose gain is it anyway? Structurational perspectives on deploying ICTs for development in India’s microfinance sector.” Journal of Information Technology for Development, 15(4), pp. 259-282.
Ratan, Aishwarya. L. (2009, August). “An
assessment of Pradan’s ‘Computer Munshi’ intervention to improve microfinance
accounting operations.” in ‘Microfinance: Exploring the Role of
Technology’, ed. S. Rajagopalan, ICFAI University Press. (Case study written
Sept 2006, revised Sept 2007).
Ratan, Aishwarya. L. and Mahesh Gogineni. (2008, May). “Cost Realism in
Deploying Technologies for Development.” Paper presented at the
Conference on “Confronting the Challenge of Technology for Development:
Experiences from the BRICS”, Department of International Development,
University of Oxford, 29-30 May 2008. ::
presentation
Ratan, Aishwarya. (2006, December). “Deconstructing
4 Microfinance Myths.” Microsoft Research Technical Report
MSR-TR-2006-194, PP. 1-12.
PRESENTATIONS
Towards gains in (contextual) efficiency and user experience. Presentation at the 'Innovations in Information Technology for the Client and the MFI' session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Microcredit Summit, July 28-30, 2008, Bali, Indonesia.
Costs, Contacts and Convenience: Leapfrogging Access
to Finance with Mobile Phone Technology. (2007, September 18). Presentation at the CGAP/ IFC/
VISA conference on "Next
Generation Access to Finance: Gaining Scale and Reducing Costs with Technology and
Credit Scoring", Washington D.C.
On
microfinance (and technology), Techfest 2007.
CASE STUDIES
Gogineni, Mahesh. “Initial assessment of a pilot intervention run by BASIX involving the use of handheld devices for the collection of microfinance repayments.” June 2007.
Ratan, Aishwarya, Mahesh Gogineni and Shabnam Aggarwal.
“Designing
and assessing the viability of a potential mobile-phone based remote data
collection solution for Ujjivan's new client acquisition process.”
December 2006 - May 2007.
Ratan, Aishwarya. “A preliminary assessment of CCD and Ekgaon's MIS pilot
intervention to improve microfinance operations.” December
2006.
Pichai, Hariprasad and Srikrishnan Ganesan. “Study of Delivery
of Financial Services in Rural Areas through ICT: An assessment of the NBFC
Sanghamithra's Simputer pilot.” August 2006.
Medhi, Indrani and Aishwarya Ratan. “Learnings from a
usability test of Citibank's biometric-ATM prototype.” June 2006.
TEM's
m-banking and m-payments project page