Decoding Impact with Rathish Balakrishnan

Despite gains in its financial inclusion journey, access to financial services is limited to 86% of India's population. Access to credit specifically is a persistent challenge, reflected in the unmet credit need of Rs 25 lakh crores - aggravated by disaggregated data and tedious data sharing processes. Account aggregators are introducing open banking in India. They have the potential to revolutionise the credit market, empowering millions of customers to access and share their financial data across institutions in a secure and efficient manner. To talk more about account aggregators and how these can enable financial digital inclusion, we have with us Shalini Gupta, the Head of Strategy at Sahamati. Sahamati is a member-driven industry alliance formed to facilitate adoption of the account aggregator ecosystem in India. ---- For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our ⁠Website⁠, ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Twitter⁠. Host: Rathish Balakrishnan | ⁠Linkedin | Twitter Guest: Shalini Gupta | LinkedIn Producer: Anagha Wankhede Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu ---- Content Sections 00:00 - Decoding Impact Introduction 00:48 - Introduction to the topic and guest 02:32 - What is an Account Aggregator? 06:40 - What financial information is viable and who will use it? 10:21 - Personal Finance Management (PFM) Use Cases 13:14 - How big is the AA system today? 15:37 - A User's Journey in the AA Framework 18:17 - Common AA Apps 18:59 - Value in Data Sharing 24:53 - Resolving Conflicts of Purpose between Financial Entities 28:40 - A New Approach to Gauging Financial Health 34:36 - What is Sahamati's Role? 37:59 - How can Account Aggregators Unlock Value? 50:30 - The Interplay of OCEN and AA 55:57 - PFM for Women 59:11 - Account Aggregators for the Government 1:03:01 - What needs to fall in place? 1:08:02 - Employing Imagination to Utilise AA 1:13:54 - The Role of Philanthropic Capital 1:19:02 - Summary and outro

India is grappling with a severe mental health crisis, with over 197 million Indians diagnosed with mental disorders, exacerbated by a wide treatment gap. The good news is that there is growing recognition of the importance of mental health in the country. However, a thorough understanding of what it entails, what forms mental well-being takes, how it should be approached and conceptualised, is lacking. Mental well-being is intertwined with economic, cultural, social and other factors at various stages of an individual’s life. Effective interventions, therefore, should be contextualised to these aspects. How can public policy, market solutions and community solutions be designed with these in mind? Joining us on World Mental Health Day to share her reflections on making mental health a key part of India’s development agenda, is Dr Pratima Murthy. Dr. Murthy is the Director of NIMHANS, where she has been pivotal in initiating Tele Manas, and establishing the state-of-the-art Centre for Addiction. She has also worked with the National Human Rights Commission to improve care for persons with mental illness. For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our ⁠Website⁠, LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Twitter⁠. Host: Rathish Balakrishnan | ⁠Linkedin | Twitter Guest: Dr. Pratima Murthy | Linkedin Producer: Meenakshi Iyer Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu Content Sections: 00:48 Introduction to the topic and guest 02:14 Why is mental well-being critical? 04:17 Recognising interconnections 08:10 Vocabulary and mental models 12:22 Context-specific intervention design 15:38 Designing population-scale interventions 23:11 Perinatal well-being 26:06 Mental health in schools 36:01 Mental health in workplaces 39:42 Prisons as a crucial locus 44:55 Mental health for the elderly 47:54 Improving access to care 51:41 Designing mental well-being models 58:22 Recommendations for philanthropy 1:02:15 Summary and Outro

In Part 2 of our discussion on Universal Health Coverage, host Rathish Balakrishnan and guest Dr Nachiket Mor dive into the need to define the right problems while taking a digital public goods approach to UHC, challenges with financing, and lessons from other countries. They also discuss how the private and public sectors can rethink existing approaches to healthcare delivery, and collaborate to implement an efficient working model for UHC in India. Dr. Nachiket Mor is trained as an economist. His current work is principally focused on the design of national and regional health systems. He is a Visiting Scientist at The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy at IIIT Bangalore. He is also a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Reimagining India's Health System. Listen to Part 1 here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5rsqLW3phlu3XLRgX1kteg For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our ⁠Website⁠, ⁠LinkedIn, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Twitter⁠.Host: Rathish Balakrishnan | ⁠Linkedin | Twitter Guest: Dr. Nachiket Mor | Linkedin | Twitter Producer: Meenakshi IyerAudio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash RaikarDesigner: Usha Sondhi Kundu Content Sections0:00 - Decoding Impact Introduction0:48 - Introduction to topic and guest02:13 - Accelerating UHC with Digital Public Goods07:02 - Articulation of DPGS16:04 -Promises of Healthcare19:23 - Financing in UHC23:21 - Incentives for public health26:35 - Managed Care29:56 - Making Strategic Purchases effective34:30 - District as a unit35:37 - Private Sector Participation Models44:23 - White spaces47:40 - Imagining a Working Model in Health52:06 - Summary and Outro

Globally, universal health coverage (UHC) has been highlighted as an important goal, because of its close links to poverty reduction and potential to enhance the economic growth of countries. From public to private health care, across primary, secondary, and tertiary care, and whether we look at the challenges and opportunities for physicians or community health workers, the promise of UHC is heady and exciting. Through this two-part discussion with Dr. Nachiket Mor, not only an expert in health, but someone who is deeply passionate about health and health systems, host Rathish Balakrishnan explores the plethora of trade-offs and barriers to realising UHC in India. In part one of this discussion Dr. Mor helps us understand what universal health coverage is, highlights existing bright spots, looks at the role of primary care, and discusses how we can talilor an approach to UHC that leverages India’s strengths. Dr. Nachiket Mor is trained as an economist. His current work is principally focused on the design of national and regional health systems. He is a Visiting Scientist at The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy at IIIT Bangalore. He is also a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Reimagining India's Health System. For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our ⁠Website⁠, ⁠Linkedin⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Twitter⁠. Host: Rathish Balakrishnan | ⁠Linkedin | Twitter Guest: Dr. Nachiket Mor | Linkedin | Twitter Producer: Meenakshi Iyer Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu Content Sections 0:00 - Decoding Impact Introduction 0:47 - Introduction to topic and guest 02:47 - Where is India in relation to Universal Health Coverage today? 09:58 - The People vs. Politics of UHC 13:14 - Building things for the greater good rather than to feel good 15:55 - Key levers to think about UHC 20:45 - Understanding the Indian context 21:57 - What is working well & opportunites in India 24: 57 - More examples in India of what is working well 26:52 - Building a multidisciplinary approach top down 29:52 - The missing tissue between ideas and intent 32:05 - Finding solutions and how to think about financing UHC 36:44 - Evolving the role of community health aids for UHC 43:21 - Learnability of community health aids 44:42 - The effect of localising community workers 46:11 - Avoiding the pitfalls of isomorphic mimicry 50:52 - Reflection and opportunities 52:41 - Understanding the true cost of UHC for India 01:00:08 - We need a high trust system to realise UHC 01:05:33 - Summary and Outro

Technology has the potential to revolutionise Indian agriculture. There are innovations in seed and bioengineering platforms, use of robots and AI and blockchain that are enhancing efficiency and transparency in the sector. India's agritech industry comprises over 1300 companies and is projected to reach over ₹1 trillion by 2025. The recent 2023-24 budget allocated INR 450 crores to the Digital Agriculture Mission and INR 600 crores for technology driven agriculture promotion. However, despite these promising tailwinds, the low adoption of technology by farmers remains a major challenge, and agritech penetration in India remains abysmally low at around 1%. In today's episode of Decoding Impact, we try to understand the potential of a platform-based approach for agritech, the importance of directing the right capital to address the right issues, and how we can take a systems approach to identify key enablers for the successful scale up of agritech. Our guest for this episode is Mr. Parmesh Shah, the Global Lead for Data, Digital Agriculture and Innovation at the Agriculture and Food Global Practice of the World Bank. Mr. Shah is currently managing a global programme on scaling up data-driven digital agriculture, involving data platforms and establishing ecosystems for innovation, entrepreneurship and incubation across 38 countries. For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our Website⁠, Linkedin⁠, Instagram, and Twitter⁠. Host: Rathish Balakrishnan | ⁠Linkedin | Twitter Guest: Parmesh Shah | Linkedin | Twitter Producer: Meenakshi Iyer Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu Content Sections: 0:00 - Decoding Impact Introduction0:48 - Introduction to topic and guest02:37 - The current agri tech landscape 05:58 - Defining agtech solutions & tech 10:03 - Successful solution categories 13:53 - The need for physical plus digital infrastructure 23:41 - 5 key principles 25:46 - Systemic challenges to agtech adoption 33:49 - Understanding platforms and agri tech 42:20 - Summarising the platform "cake" layers 43:35 - Different types of capital 49:22 - Building a platform-based approach 57:25 - Challenges for big business and the State 01:04:10 - Role of Philanthropy 01:07:20 - Summary and thanks

India is known for its large companies across manufacturing and technology, but what often goes unnoticed is that a large part of the employment in this country is actually driven by Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). MSMEs contribute to more than 30% of India's GDP, and 11 million of these are in fact very, very small. These comprise the segment of MSMEs known as nano entrepreneurs, with an annual turnover between ten lakhs and one crore. On this episode of Decoding Impact, host Rathish Balakrishnan speaks with Priya Naik, Founder and CEO at Samhita Social Ventures, to discuss who are these nano entrepreneurs, what are their challenges, and how can the ecosystem catalyse their potential to become growth engines for the Indian economy. Priya has two decades of experience in impact and entrepreneurship and has worked with International Finance Corporation, the Poverty Action Lab at MIT, and Arthur Andersen. For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our Website⁠, Linkedin⁠, Instagram, and Twitter⁠. Host: Rathish Balakrishnan | ⁠Linkedin | Twitter Guest: Priya Naik | Linkedin Producer: Meenakshi Iyer Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu Content Sections: 0:00 - Decoding Impact Introduction 0:48 - Introduction to topic and guest 01:43 - Who are nano entrepreneurs? 03:02 - Sustainability and scale 06:12 - The challenges for nano entrepreneurs 14:02 - Overcoming challenges for nano entrepreneurs 22:08 - Tailoring for the nano entrepreneurs 24:33 - Market first or philanthropy first? 30:06 - Gender and entrepreneurship 35:52 - The growth curve for women entrepreneurs 42:36 - Formalisation of the marketplace 49:20 - Preparing nano entrepreneurs for success 53:20 - Growing and enabling the nano entrepreneurs ecosystem 59:00 - Summary and thanks

Do we take the possibilities enabled by the unique identification system of Aadhar for granted in India today? Certain reports estimate that 850 million people around the world do not have an official ID, and that around 133 countries today do not have a digital payment system. Through India's digitisation revolution we have made leaps and bounds in how people can be uniquely identified for social welfare needs and how they can use that identity to manage basic civic rights like accessing financial services, government support, and even applying for a job. So how can more countries benefit from what we are doing today in India, in a manner which builds the agency of the country to deliver better welfare for their people? To discuss this host Rathish Balakrishnan had an opportunity to speak to Professor S Rajagopalan for this episode of Decoding Impact. Professor S Rajagopalan, is currently the president of MOSIP & OpenG2P, both housed under IIIT, Bangalore. He is an entrepreneur, teacher, advisor and advocate, and his subject matter expertise and interests include innovation dissemination, economics of innovations, Geographical Information systems, and Economics of Information Technologies. For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our Website⁠, Linkedin⁠, Instagram, and Twitter⁠. Host: Rathish Balakrishnan | ⁠Linkedin | Twitter Guest: Professor S Rajagopalan | Linkedin Producer: Meenakshi Iyer Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu Content Sections: 0:51 - Introduction to topic and guest 02:53 - Understanding MOSIP 06:35 - Why is a unique identity important? 10:36 - How are other countries looking at identity? 11:55 - Drawbacks to using other systems 14:28 - Which countries are using MOSIP today? 17:27 - Timelines to implement MOSIP in other countries 19:38 - How countries are enabled to implement MOSIP 24:01 - Reactions and interacting with other countries 27:16 - Tailoring approaches for each country 29:33 - Transferrable use of DPIs 33:58 - Value unlocked through DPIs 36:00 - Other opportunities and applications 41:45 - Accelerating adoption of DPIs 43:59 - Global tailwinds for adoption 45:07 - The DPI and DPG mental model 50:26 - The role of philanthropy 54:36 - Summary and thanks

Education is the Harry Potter of the social sector. Everybody loves it. Everybody puts money into it. Yet, why aren't we seeing sweeping outcomes? As per the Annual Status of Education Report or ASER 2022, in India the enrolment rate for primary schools stands at the highest it has ever been in Indian education history at 98.4%. However, only 42.8% of grade five students are able to read at grade level text. Assessment and measuring foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) outcomes has been thrust to the forefront of understanding what the problems in education are today, so that they can be solved more effectively. To discuss this and more on Decoding Impact, host Rathish Balakrishnan cuaght up with the CEO of Pratham Education Foundation, Dr. Rukmini Banerji. Dr. Banerji is an accomplished educationist, who advocates for data-driven education reforms and she has spearheaded the development of notable large-scale assessments, including the widely recognised ASER. For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our ⁠Website⁠, ⁠Linkedin⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Twitter⁠. Host: Rathish Balakrishnan | ⁠Linkedin | Twitter Guest: Dr. Rukmini Banerji | Linkedin Producer: Meenakshi Iyer Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu Content Sections 0:00 - Decoding Impact Introduction 0:51 - Introduction to topic and guest 02:57 - The origin story of ASER 15:16 - How ASER was adopted nationally and learnings 23:48 - What has made ASER successful? 31:28 - ASER is a true public good 32:16 - ASER as a social movement 37:17 - Education trends post COVID 43:56 - The Big Jump for FLN 50:10 - Its not about reading, its about self-confidence 50:56 - Government role, natural disasters, and successful state interventions 57:20 - Summary and thanks

Millets are often referred to as the crop of the future and India has been undergoing its own renaissance with this super food. Also, 2023 has been designated as the International Year of Millets by the UN, where India has been leading the discourse to develop the dialogue on millets globally. The magic of millets holds the promise of unlocking a model of production that is good for us, the farmer, businesses, and good for the environment. In this podcast host Rathish Balakrishnan had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Sivakumar S, someone who deeply understands the Sarkar, the Samaj and the Bazaar of agriculture deeply with over 30 years of experience in the sector. Mr. Sivakumar S is currently the group head of Agri and IT businesses at ITC Limited and is a member of its Corporate Management Committee. He also oversees ITC’s Sustainability and Social Investments programme. Mr. Sivakumar S has also been engaged as an advisor for the agricultural industry, at both a national and international level. For more, follow Sattva Knowledge Institute on our Website, Linkedin, Instagram, and Twitter. Host: Rathish Balakrishnan | ⁠Linkedin | Twitter Guest: Sivakumar S | Linkedin | Twitter Producer: Meenakshi Iyer Audio Engineer & Editor: Abhilash Raikar Designer: Usha Sondhi Kundu Contents of Episode 0:00 - Decoding Impact Introduction 0:51 - Introduction to topic and guest 02:26 - Consumer-side benefits and advantages of millets 05:54 - Other unique advantages of millets 10:52 - The farmer perspective 15:19 - Systemic challenges holding back the promise of millets 22:44 - Three-pronged approach to promote consumption of millets 27:05 - What it will take to mainstream millet consumption 30:30 - R&D to improve millet production 32:40 - Creating a decentralised infrastructure 35:36 - How else can we look at promoting millets? 39:42 - From the Green Revolution to the Brown Revolution 45:23 - Producers and the Green Revolution & industry sentiments towards millets 52:29 - Transferrable Learnings for Millets 56:47 - The role of philanthropy & the state 59:49 - Summary & Thanks

Dr. Pramod Varma, expert in digital public infrastructure and digital public goods, discusses the importance of unlocking value from DPIs and DPGs in various social sectors in India. He highlights the success of Aadhar and UPI as examples of DPIs and explores advancements in digital infrastructure. The podcast also explores the concept of a 'bus list' and the factors necessary for the digital public goods movement to gain momentum.