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In a country where financial inclusion and security remain an aspiration, any innovation is a welcome initiative. And that is why BusinessLine’s Changemaker Awards have a specific category for Financial Transformation. This year, the category saw many very interesting entries. The five that were shortlisted are:
Kumar Shailabh
Prevention is better than cure, and Kumar Shailabh knows this well. A master in social work, Shailabh started Uplift Mutuals, a mutual micro-insurance model designed, co-owned and led by women, which focusses on preventive health. Started in 2004, Uplift Mutuals currently has nine local mutual micro-insurance units covering over three lakh people. It plans to reach one million lives by 2022.
Trade Receivables Discounting System
A platform to address the liquidity woes of the MSME sector, TReDS facilitates the financing of trade receivables of MSMEs from corporate buyers through multiple financiers. With three licensed players in operation, the TReDS platform has 3,708 MSME sellers, 604 buyers and 71 banks. They have helped finance 2.52 lakh invoices worth ₹6,669 crore as of March 2019.
IndiaStack
The world’s largest open application programming interface (API) platform, IndiaStack aims to take the benefit of technology to every individual in the country. The platform provides digital infrastructure to governments, businesses, start-ups and developers to develop presence-less, paperless and cashless service delivery systems. In just six years, it has catalysed 1.06 billion Aadhaar cards, 2.98 billion Aadhaar authentications and 150 million eKYCs — a testimony to the platform’s capability.
Chetna Gala Sinha
A social activist and farmer, Chetna Gala Sinha is the founder and Chairperson of Mann Deshi Bank, India’s first bank for and by rural women. Located in the drought-prone Mhaswad region of Maharashtra, the bank, along with the Mann Deshi Foundation, empowers women entrepreneurs with access to knowledge, financial literacy and much-needed credit support. The bank plans to support over 10 lakh woman entrepreneurs by 2022.
Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority
Pension fund regulator PFRDA, which manages two key pension schemes — the National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) — plays a major role in the promotion and development of a pensioned society in India. PFRDA, which currently manages 1.31 crore NPS subscribers and 2.01 APY subscribers, has set an astronomical target of covering 45 crore subscribers under the two pension schemes.
The winner will be announced at the BusinessLine Changemaker Awards event to be held on March 6 in New Delhi. Attendance at the event, supported by LIC, Tata Sons, Dell, Qualcomm, PepsiCo and Nestle, among others, is strictly by invitation.
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