What does it mean to be financially included? Does having an Aadhaar, a Jan Dhan account and a phone make one financially included? Is rural India able to access financial products and institutions comfortably?
Is the Fintech revolution actually here?
The biggest problem with fintech in India is that the full potential of financial technology and policy is not really reaching the poorest of the poor. Thoroughly researched and expertly written, FinTech for Billions reveals why many of the existing solutions have faltered and fumbled along their path to inclusion. But things are not without hope. Through meticulous research across India - from towns in Rajasthan to villages in Goa, from hamlets in Odisha to districts in Telangana and Himachal Pradesh -- this book offers simple, human and ubiquitous solutions that can transform the lives of people at the bottom of the pyramid.
Bhagwan Chowdhry is a professor of Finance and Executive Director, Digital Identity Research Initiative at the Indian School of Business and a Research Professor at the Anderson School at University of California, Los Angeles.
He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
His research interests, on which he has published several papers in finance and economics journals, are in International Finance, Corporate Finance, Impact Investing, and FinTech. He is an Advisor to several FinTech start-ups.
Syed Anas Ahmed is the Lead Research Officer for the Digital Identity Research Initiative at the Indian School of Business, who has traversed classrooms, boardrooms, and rural communities across India working closely with CEOs and entrepreneurs of the leading financial institutions and start-ups, regulators, bureaucrats and politicians to advise them on accelerating financial inclusion in India.
He pursued economics from Cardiff University, UK and has a profound interest in leveraging technology for economic development. He co-authored a chapter in The Palgrave Handbook of Technological Finance and has contributed numerous articles for newspapers like The Economic Times and The Times of India.
