XKDR Newsletter - Issue 11

Measuring Financial Inclusion • CO2 pollution arbitrage • Need for more national champions • Cyber security for firms • Decline in global uncertainty • Greenwashing in ESG investments • Julia events

A Report on Measuring Financial Inclusion

In this report, Natasha D’cruze, Indradeep Ghosh, Geetika Palta, Misha Sharma, and Susan Thomas, attempt to capture the level of financial inclusion in Indian states and its impact, by surveying a sample of 300 low-income households in Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu. They use the DR-XKDR input-output-outcome method to measure this. The input to financial inclusion is measured as participation in formal financial sector instruments. The output is the extent to which these are used. The outcome is how those who hold and use these instruments perceive their own well-being.

Key Findings:

• Higher levels of physical asset ownership and access to digital infrastructure correlate with higher participation in financial assets, frequency of usage of financial assets as well as perceived financial well-being.

• High monthly income correlates with high perceived financial well-being.

• Higher technology exposure correlates with higher intensity of using financial assets and financial well-being.

The full report and underlying data can be accessed here.

Commentary

The current low interest in the Indian state to reduce CO2 emissions combined with sound pollution control in developed markets will give Indian firms temporary gains from CO2 pollution arbitrage, writes Ajay Shah in his Business Standard column. He argues that this arbitrage opportunity will soon cease and firms must think more strategically and play the long game.

In their piece in Bloomberg Quint, Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah show that the magnitude of infrastructure projects in India has been declining. They argue that a few players are not sufficient to drive growth. Instead, they advocate for the establishment of rule of law, sound regulatory mechanisms, and predictability of contracts, to bring in more private players.

Karthik Suresh writes in Bloomberg Quint on ways firms can fare better on cyber security. He provides two solutions that firms can adopt - confidential sharing of information on threats and self-regulation through best practices and security protocols.

Ajay Shah looks back at several global incidents that caused macroeconomic uncertainty in the past few years. He presents reasons to show that the Uncertainty has declined now and how this restoration of macroeconomic stability will help set the stage for a period of sustained growth starting in 2024.

In her article in Bloomberg Quint, Susan Thomas writes on why ESG investors, and financial firms in India must form a shared intellectual framework to measure the efficacy of financial inclusion. She argues that it is difficult to establish the outcome of ESG investments that claim to support financial inclusion and a more accurate measure of financial inclusion can solve this.

Events

On 22 March 2023 (11 am to 1 pm), Sharan Yalburgi, an ardent contributor to Julia, will lead a technical session on the various ways to use Julia for probabilistic programming. To know more about the session and participate in it, click here.

Join us at the Bombay Julia Meetup #2 on 22 March 2023 (4 pm to 6 pm) which brings together the Julia Community in Mumbai. Click here to view the agenda and register for the event.

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We welcome your comments and suggestions on our work. Please write them to pavithra.manivannan4@gmail.com. To know more about our work visit xkdr.org.