Bridging the Gaps: Enabling Technology Adoption for Long-Tail Indian Retail

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In our fourth blog, we explore several perceptions and misconceptions that retailers hold about adopting technology and identify principles and potential solutions that might help bridge this gap

Identifying Technology Adoption Gaps Among Long-tail Merchants

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In this blog, we uncover the barriers to long tail retailers' access to digital tools. Using formative research, we chart technology usage across various stages of their retail businesses.

Imagining Digital Solutions for Small and Micro Retailers of India

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Our second blog in the series on digitising Indian retail businesses covers the various digital tools available and how they could benefit a small or micro retailer

Digitizing Small and Micro-Merchants in India - What’s missing?

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Our first blog of this series explores the current landscape of small and micro-merchants in India and the potential for digitization to improve business outcomes.

Embedded Finance - 101

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This blog articulates the meaning, mechanisms and business motives behind offering embedded finance solutions.

Playbook: Designing Financial Products for the Women of Bharat

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Proposing ideas and interventions across the user journey by leveraging the insights collected from interviews in the Banking on Women series.

Tricked by Design: Deceptive Patterns in Indian Fintech Apps

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We conducted an audit of popular fintech apps and assessed for deceptive design used by them. Here's what we found.

Can ‘Offline’ Drive Digital Payments in India?

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In the fifth blog of the Digital Payments for the Next Half Billion series, we explore the importance of 'offline' digital payments in furthering financial inclusion in India.

Women's obscure path from awareness to adoption of insurance products

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The fourth blog of the insights from the “Banking on Women” series covers our respondents’ views and apprehensions when it comes to insurance policies.

Understanding digital payment journeys of new to UPI users

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For the 9th episode of the D91 Labs Idea Series, we have with us Beni Chugh and Srikara Prasad from Dvara Research’s Future of Finance initiative In this interview, we will delve deep into understanding the new-to-UPI user’s experience where our guests will share the findings from a behavioural study with 262 respondents from Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.

Women’s choice between savings and investments to gain financial freedom

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The third blog of the insights from the “Banking on Women” series covers our respondents’ views on savings, investments and emergency funds

Can Credit on UPI drive Financial Inclusion in India?

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Our fourth blog examines the implications of enabling credit on UPI for financial inclusion in India. Is it an effective concept or just a case of much ado about nothing?

Women’s journey from access to the usage of bank accounts and digital payment platforms

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Blog one of this series contains insights on banking habits, digital payments and household expense tracking practices among the respondents.

Voicing Their Needs: Can Voice Technology Make Payments Easier for Digital Newcomers?

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Our third blog of the Digital Payments for the Next Half Billion series explores if voice technology can bridge the digital divide and provide a more accessible way of making transactions digitally.

Can WhatsApp drive financial inclusion in Rural India?

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For the 8th episode of the D91 Labs Idea Series, we have with us Pooja Haldea and Vartika Shukla, from the Centre of Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC) at Ashoka university.

Will ONDC solve problems faced by small sellers?

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In this blog, we share insights from our interviews with small sellers in India on how they imagine ONDC will alter business for them.

Can ‘e-RUPI’ enable digital payments for the unbanked?

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In our second blog of the Digital Payment for the Next Half Billion series, we explain the e-RUPI voucher-based payment, its usefulness for 'Bharat', and potential design flaws that could derail it.

Digital Pension - Making retirement planning easy for Bharat

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Our guest for the 6th episode of the D91 Labs Idea Series is Kuldeep Parashar, Founder, and CEO of PensionBox.

Has UPI Lite solved for small-value transactions in India?

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In our first blog for the Digital Payment for the Next Half Billion series, we explain the UPI Lite model, and its various use cases along with design suggestions for payment apps offering UPI Lite.

Re-imagining B2B e-commerce with the advent of ONDC

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ONDC might solve the distribution & discovery of small producers and sellers. Read to know how.

Does ONDC address the competition concerns that plague Indian e-commerce?

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In this blog, we closely evaluate the extent to which an unbundled and interoperable e-commerce network might undo existing competition concerns.

Why do we need ONDC for e-commerce?

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This blog is a quick introduction to the ONDC model and its intended purpose of providing better e-commerce access to the merchants of Bharat

The QR code revolution in payments — what's missing?

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Delving into digital payment usage patterns of small vendors, and the role of UX research and design in building financially inclusive products for new smartphone users.

#17 Pavitra | The power of starting small

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I am happy where I currently am because there have been many ups and downs in my life before. Therefore, I feel as long as things are going smoothly, it’s fine.

Financial report card of the people of India (Assets)

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We have parsed through the All India Debt and Investment Survey (2019) to map where Indians stand in terms of accessing and using financial products and services.

Women are buyers, they cannot be sold to!

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We hosted a webinar on women’s financial inclusion by bringing together the experience of 6 women working at the intersection of finance, tech & research for women. Here’s our final learnings!

Every woman entrepreneur without exception has had to have jugaad to get her legs off the ground!

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We hosted a webinar on women’s financial inclusion by bringing together the experience of 6 women working at the intersection of finance, tech & research for women. Here’s part 2 of our key learnings!

Good girls don't talk about money!

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We hosted a webinar on women’s financial inclusion by bringing together the experience of 6 women working at the intersection of finance, tech & research for women. Here’s part 1 of our key learnings!

Moving from access to usage—Making formal finance work for women

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Join us on an insightful discussion on the many facets of a woman’s financial and entrepreneurship journey.

Banking on women

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Introducing a series chronicling the financial journeys of the women of Bharat

Pagdi rent system — 101

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What if we told you that you could live in South Bombay and pay a rent of Rs. 500. Would you believe me? Well, you can. Read to know more

Securing financial futures and the case for goal-based financial planning

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Part 2 — How Indian households can turn their financial dreams to reality.

Designing for Account Aggregators

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Design principles for data sharing through Account Aggregator apps.

'Bridging' the data gap one consensual data transfer at a time.

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What Jigneshbhai's daily life and activities tells us about account aggregators!

Securing financial futures and the case for goal-based financial planning

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Part 1—Why do people 'save' the way they do?

Can no-code and low-code applications boost digitization and financial inclusion?

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Applications that empower small businesses and institutions in building a digital presence without detailed know-how in software development.

The future of microloans—Part 2

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Can tech aid in the implementation of the RBI's proposals?

The future of microloans—Part 1

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How RBI's new consultation paper provides impetus to innovate and places customers at the core of the sector.

Chit Fund 101

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How is a standard chit fund product designed and what makes this instrument so attractive

India ❤️s F.D and they need a digital makeover!

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Why Indian startups don't distribute F.Ds

Whatsapp and the future of lending

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What would an end to end digital experience using account aggregators look like?

Tales of Bharat — Issue #14

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“To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.” —Thomas Watson, IBM

Tales of Bharat — Issue #13

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“A small business is an amazing way to serve and leave an impact on the world you live in.” -Nicole Snow

Tales of Bharat — Issue #12

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Discussing millenial banking journeys in the context of neobanking

Tales of Bharat — Issue #11

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'How might we help micro-finance institutions to enable digital loan repayments in the times of COVID’

Tales of Bharat — Issue #10

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All about the Personal Finance Survey 2020!

Tales of Bharat — Issue #9

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Most of India gets paid based on the hours they work, trips they complete, parcels they deliver or the days they cook. They are the only asset in their business. When they stop the business shuts. Think about it. In this edition we bring two such stories from the ‘other side’ in our Rural Journey series.

Tales of Bharat — Issue #8

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Welcome to our first newsletter of 2020. We started D91 Labs with a vision to bridge the empathy gap between between the fintech developers and the last mile Bharat. What started as a simple blog post back in 2019 is now a small and niche research lab by itself. The love and reception we have received has been overwhelming. We are indebted to this. As we step forward to an eventful 2020, here is a small recap of what we did in 2019.