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The purpose of this study is to measure the availability, accessibility and usability of financial products and services in both rural and urban India from 1991 to 2014.

This paper uses principal component analysis (PCA) method to construct financial inclusion index that serves as a proxy variable for indicating the inclusiveness of financial products and services among the rural and urban people. To fulfill this objective, the study proposes separate indexes of financial inclusion for both rural and urban India from 1991 to 2014. The paper uses annual time series data from 1991 to 2014 to construct the rural-urban financial inclusion index. The used data have been collected from the basic statistical returns of Reserve Bank of India and Economic Political Weekly research foundation.

The study inferences that though there is a remarkable increase in financial inclusion in India from 1991 onwards, it does not result in sizeable growth of financial access to rural masses in comparison to urban masses. The rural India does not substantiate an equivalent growth to that of urban India, contrasting a perceptible increase in financial inclusion. The finding of this study will help the researchers and policymakers to understand the status of financial inclusion in the context of both rural and urban India. Furthermore, policymakers can take appropriate policy initiatives to fulfill the financial inclusion gap that exists between rural and urban people. Additionally, the proposed index is easy to compute and can be used to make comparison across countries for further studies.

The present paper attempts to include all possible dimensions (and indicators within a dimension) that have been considered so far by various authors. Therefore, the authors hope that this index will be more indicative and accurate than previous index. Again, the authors propose to use PCA for the first time to assign the weight of factors in the financial inclusion index for rural and urban India separately.

The magnitude of rural poverty is larger as compared to urban poverty in India. The basic explanation for sectoral poverty differentiates in India is the misallocation of resources and urban‐biased strategy of development. Investment allocation in Indian planning is not strictly based on the consideration of equity and economic efficiency. The rural sector gets the smaller share of investible resources, and therefore rural income, output and employment fall short of the optimum level, and rural poverty intensifies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of rural energy transition in cooking options in India. Although India is aiming to achieve a double-digit economic growth, a large share of rural households still rely on firewood for cooking which not only has serious repercussions of increasing indoor pollution but also has a concomitant adverse effect on women and child morbidity and mortality. However, transition to clean energy options like improved cookstoves for these households may not be necessarily linear. It is often driven or resisted by latent factors such as caste, trust, social capital, information flow, social positioning of clusters that are deeply embedded in the social and cultural norms and values specific to local rural contexts. This has been shown in the present case study that pertains to eight villages in the remote and deprived Purnea district of Bihar and the need for internalizing them in the macro energy policymaking has been established in the paper.

The paper applies a macro foundation research that is complemented by micro foundation tools of fuzzy cognitive mapping-based mental model framework to achieve the purpose of the study. Focused-group discussions and interviews are also conducted to establish the narrative of the paper.

Caste, socio-political position, asset structure, remoteness, culture and technology access affect rural households’ decision making capability that is related to shifting from using the traditionalmeans of firewood and biomass based traditional cookstoves for cooking to adopting improved clean cooking stoves which will enable the transition toward the use of clean rural energy in the eight villages in Bihar chosen for this study.

The findings of the paper have larger implications for the broader macro energy policymaking in the country by taking into account the non-linear, latent factors of village contexts.

The research will help energy policymakers in decision-making and will guide the implementation process of national- and state-level policies on rural energy transition in India.

The findings of the paper will help the smoother implementation of national- and state-level rural energy transition policies for cooking, creating developmental dividends for rural Indian households.

The research is new with regard to the application of non-deterministic fuzzy cognitive mapping-based mental model approach to contribute to the country’s national- and state-level rural energy transition policies.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in reducing Infant Mortality in India. The study will help the government in deciding its future course of action regarding the infant mortality rate (IMR) reduction in India.

This paper adopts the interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) approach with a control group to study the role of NRHM in reducing the IMR in India. The authors examined infant mortality in rural areas of India for the level and trend change before and after the implementation of NRHM. The authors then applied a suitable ARMA model to estimate the coefficients of the regression model. From the estimated results, the study predicts the counterfactuals for both the rural IMR and urban IMR and plots the results.

The study found the evidence supporting the hypotheses that the NRHM has led to a reduction in the difference between urban IMR and rural IMR. The research shows that the rural IMR declined at steeper rates in the post-NRHM period (2005–2015).

None of the existing studies analyses the impact of a social scheme like NRHM on the reduction of IMR in India by applying the ITSA. The study is unique as it estimates the counterfactuals and plots the results which show the impact of NRHM on reducing IMR.

Post-independence, the rural credit market in India has undergone significant structural changes in order to enhance the availability and efficient use of credit. The purpose of this paper is to understand the challenges and changes in the Indian rural credit market in the post-independence period.

Using data from the All India Debt and Investment Survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation of the Government of India from 1971–1972 to 2012 and Reserve Bank of India in 1951–1952 and 1961–1962, the study focuses on three important aspect of rural credit market, i.e. the availability, sources and uses of credit. The analysis is based on both the national and state level data and uses the decadal growth rates to explain the changes in the rural credit market.

Availability of credit, in terms of volume and number of households indebted, has increased substantially. However, the sharp rise in outstanding debt is a matter of concern. The share of credit from institutional agencies has seen a continuous decline post liberalisation. The non-institutional agencies, particularly the professional moneylenders, continue to be the most preferred sources of credit owing to their flexible nature of operation. Interesting, microfinance has emerged as a major source of credit particularly for the poor rural households. The rise in credit usage for non-income generating activities amongst poor households is another important concern.

The study highlights some of the most important features and characteristics associated with the Indian rural credit market. An understanding of these issues would provide valuable insight for shaping the future policy responses.

Health is an important issue in our life. A person with good health will have peace of mind and will be able to contribute to nation-building. We cannot expect performance from an ill person with a low morale. In the present paper, the authors tried to understand the ground realities of health-care facilities provided in India and more specifically in Odisha, India.

This empirical paper used a non-experimental design to test a proposed model based on a review of relevant literature. In this paper, an initial pilot study was conducted by taking 44 various variables; however, after the study and taking the expert opinion, the variables were restricted to only 30. For the purpose of study, only state-sponsored hospitals were considered on a random sampling method.

The analysis of data is conducted on a simple percentage method with closed-end options. It is found that even after 67 years of independence, people do not have access to basic medical care facilities in the rural areas and to some extent in semi-urban areas also. The major stumbling block is inadequate infrastructure in these hospitals.

While this study offers some insight into the status of healthcare infrastructure in rural India, the sample was limited to respondents in state-sponsored hospitals, which may not represent the views about private hospitals.

It seems that in some interior areas of Odisha, people rely more on their fate than then these health-care services.

Various governments claim that they are spending millions of rupees on health-care service, but the benefits are not being felt by the masses. We are sure that our attempt to highlight the scenario of health-care services in the state of Odisha will be an eye opener and will compel the various stake holders to introspect their involvement in the health-care services provided in these areas.

A considerable amount of research has been done evaluating the status of healthcare in India, but this is the first empirical research study to date based on respondents from the rural parts of the state of Odisha in India. Some of these areas are not reachable to researchers due to the poor infrastructure. This contribution is also of special importance amid the recent criticism of the healthcare infrastructure in India by prominent management scholars.

Discusses the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for rural communities. Highlights the factors preventing rural communities from reaping the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and technological innovations to access them. Defines community information systems and lists selected successful models outside India. Despite the limitations in basic infrastructure and low‐level penetration of information technology in India, more than 50 grassroots projects are using modern ICTs for the benefit of rural communities. Describes selected community projects in India. Also identifies the bottlenecks in, possible solutions for and observations of the initiatives of rural projects. Concludes that creating information‐rich societies is a key element of poverty reduction and sustainable development. Community network centres can play a key role in meeting the socio‐economic aspirations of rural communities by successfully addressing the “eight Cs” of success in the digital age: connectivity, content, community, commerce, capacity, culture, co‐operation and capital.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the issues and concerns of Indian rural credit, which is a powerful tool for enhancing production and productivity and for poverty alleviation. Further it highlights some of the strategies adopted by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to increase the rural credit facilities in the rural area of India.

The various tools of rural credit are analysed in detail. The Regional Rural Bank (RRB) who play a vital role in increasing the rural credits is studied. Self Help Group (SHG)‐Bank Linkage model of NABARD which creates an interface of the informal arrangements of the poor with the banking system is also analysed in detail.

Rural credits serve as a tool for providing a sustainable livelihood for millions of rural Indians who don't have a means of livelihood. Several organisations like RRBs, Microfinance Institutions, NABARD, etc. are playing a major role in providing rural credit facilities to rural India. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is formulating and regulating the policies and procedure to make the rural credit facilities available to most of the needy. In spite of several efforts put up by various organisations to increase the rural credit facilities, several challenges will prevail in the years to come.

These aspects of the financial sector remain undervalued in mainstream literature on rural credit. With India being a nation in which more than 70 percent of people live in rural areas and rural credit being a powerful, and the only, tool for rural people in providing a means of livelihood, its importance and potential should be known to each individual.

The specific learning objectives of the case are as follows: To contribute to the knowledge of environmental challenges faced by various financial companies while trying to foray into the rural markets, especially in case of insurance products’ expansion strategy; to understand the distribution strategy adopted by insurance companies in rural as well as urban markets; to apply the concepts such as mental accounting, designing and pricing of insurance products to develop an effective strategy for insurance products targeting the rural market; to be able to analyse the data available on products and the rural market structure that enables the students to derive from an implementable managerial framework and design an effective rural market strategy for insurance products; and to enable the students to evaluate the key rural market drivers, which will subsequently help them to develop a new structure of rural distribution channel.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited (IPRU) was trying to reach the last mile customers of rural India to tap the opportunity and meet the Indian Government's statutory requirement of financial inclusion. Even though the leadership of IPRU was optimistic about the untapped potential of rural India, and launched a separate business vertical - Rural Business Channel (RBC) in the year 2002 to cater to this target segment, yet it faced many strategic issues while foraying into the rural domain. The company struggled with both the designing of products as per the rural customers' needs, as well as the distribution of these products in rural areas. The present case study is an attempt to bring out the strategic challenges that were faced by the IPRU management, with a major focus on designing, pricing and distribution of rural insurance products. The case study will help the readers in understanding what might go wrong while entering new rural markets and how to deal with these challenges.

The case study can be used to teach both undergraduate and postgraduate management students.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The authors study the effect of access to smartphones on the socio-economic well-being in the case of rural base of the pyramid (BoP) women. While smartphone access may have its benefits, the paper suggests augmenting access with a sociotechnical intermediary (STI) that facilitates training and online community building to enhance the well-being outcomes.

The authors conducted a survey from three groups of women from rural West Bengal (India) – (1) who do not own smartphones, (2) who have their own smartphones and (3) who receive smartphones and STI support (over two years). The authors evaluate the effect of access to smartphones and STI support on social well-being (including structural social capital and empowerment) and economic well-being (including entrepreneurial intent and subjective economic well-being).

The analysis results suggest a high relationship between smartphone ownership and higher structural social capital, empowerment (in terms of freedom of movement) and entrepreneurial intent. The authors further find these effects to be enhanced amongst women who received smartphones and support from STI.

The authors attribute this enhanced well-being amongst women with smartphones and STI support to peer-learning and cultivation of virtual role models facilitated by the STI through creation of intra-community online groups. The results have significant policy implications for socio-economic well-being of rural BoP women.