Beyond credit: The case for savings innovation for India’s poor: Dr. M S Sriram

In this month’s column for Business Standard, Dr. M S Sriram, Public Policy area, argues that while payments innovation has transformed remittances for low-income Indians, savings remains ‘the next frontier’, a space that ‘is crying to be occupied with tech-led innovation.’

Drawing on the sector’s regulatory history and the poor demonstrated appetite to save, visible even in their vulnerability to Ponzi schemes and chit funds, in the piece ‘The poor’s savings: The next frontier for NPCI and RBI Innovation Hub,’ he contends that legacy banks are structurally ill-suited to innovate on savings products for volatile, low-income cash flows. The way forward lies in NPCI and the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub building white-label savings products anchored on PMJDY accounts, mirroring the background-engine role NPCI played in UPI’s rise.