Women's World Banking (WWB) is dedicated towards economic empowerment through financial inclusion to the one billion women in the world without access to formal financial services. Using its sophisticated market and consumer research, WWB turns insights into real action to design and advocate for policy engagement, digital financial solutions, workplace leadership programs and gender lens investing. According to WWB 742 million women remain outside the formal financial system today.
Kalpana Ajayan is the Regional Head, South Asia and comes with 25+ years of experience in retail banking and insurance. She has worked at Citibank, HSBC and Edelweiss Financial Services in various roles across functions such as strategy, sales & distribution, HR and customer experience. Kalpana is passionate about supporting women's empowerment and in an individual capacity is a certified mental health counsellor to low-income women and an advisor to key not-for-profits in India.
Mehul Dani: What's your understanding of the level of financial inclusion (FI) among women in India today? Would you say that Fl is becoming mainstream and women are the biggest beneficiaries of those efforts?
Kalpana Ajayan: India has led a successful financial inclusion journey dominated by two parallel efforts. The first is the self-help groups (SHG) and microfinance industry (MFI), which very effectively reached and provided access to credit to low-income customers by leveraging collective social capital. The second, and the more recent, is the PMJDY accounts journey that started in 2014, driven largely by the public sector bank. Today, over 450 million Indians have access to basic banking services, and this is a tremendous achievement. The next logical step is to ensure fruitful usage of and engagement with these services.
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Banking Frontiers.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Banking Frontiers.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Kamdhenu & Sammrudhi loans top rural customers
Unnayan Bharat Finance Corporation (UBFC) Director & Co-Founder Avneesh Trivedi shares the company's attempts to enhance the rural lending environment & deliver better services to its consumers:
It's going to be a 'world' of CBDCs
Practically, every central bank in the world is testing and readying a CBDC system:
Training for behavioral & social skills is key
3 CHROs from the top BFSI companies in India open up about their training and motivation programs aimed at enhancing employee effectiveness. The story is divided into 4 parts: (i) functional and behavioral training, (ii) manager to leadership training, (iii) learning-based training, (iv) motivational programs:
THE AI COMPASS
Artificial Intelligence has risen to be the hottest topic of discussion today. It is expected to impact everyone, and the impact could exceed that of war, global warming, supply chain disruptions, geopolitics, and much more.
To mentor & coach emerging leaders
Manish Shah, MD & CEO of Godrej Capital, outlines his focus areas today and in the future:
Innovation will unlock India's Mission 'Atmanirbhar’
Sunita Handa is Chairman, Toyota FSIN and Principal Advisor & TLAB Chairman, Protectt.ai Labs. She shares her current activities and her deep insights on innovaiton in an interaction with Manoj Agrawal:
Algorithm is the Boss
Irem Sayeed, Chief Credit Officer at U GRO Capital, dwells into business focus and modernization at the lender:
Fintech and Neobank under the same Umbrella
It was started in 1902 to build what came to be called Israel:
Bajaj Allianz Revolutionizes Employee's HR and IT Experience with WhatsApp, MS Teams, Al and Automation
A productivity booster shot at BALIC:
Small Beginning for a Big Opportunity
AMU Leasing's focus on serving the underserved market of individuals and fleets looking for financing for electric 3-wheelers and 2-wheelers: