Banks
The SEWA Bank was founded in 1974 by 4,000 SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) members each contributing ten rupees. SEWA Bank has implemented various innovative programs aimed at providing access for self employed women to credit, secure savings, insurance, pensions and housing.
Development Institutions
Friends of Women’s World Banking, an affiliate of Women’s World Banking, was originally founded to guarantee bank loans to poor women in Gujarat and offering counselling on savings and credit. FWWB now partners with 91 organizations in 12 states, providing funds to increase the scope of microfinance in India and working with NGOs to become MFIs. The Revolving Loan Fund offers refinancing for partner MFIs and Capacity Building Program targets female recipients of microfinance loans.
UNDP is partnering with IIMPS on co-contributory pensions.UNDP is the UN's global development network. They work in 166 countries through a network of 135 country offices worldwide. Under the overarching goal of poverty eradication UNDP focuses on five inter-connected thematic areas.
IIMPs is working with ADB on pension reforms project for India.ADB is an international development finance institution whose mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people.
Donors
KfW is a German Government-owned development bank, based at Frankfurt. KfW gives impulses for the economy, society and ecology the world over. It supports change and promotes promising ideas. Creativity, humanity, responsibility, market economy, sustainability, performance and tolerance are the yardsticks by which KfW measures its actions.
Micro Finanace Institutions
Founded and promoted by Ramesh Ramanathan, Janalakshmi commenced its microfinance operations in July 2006. Janalakshmi seeks to move beyond the narrow definition of microcredit to broad-based microfinance encompassing a range of financial services including savings, insurance, and pension to be offered to individuals and groups. Janalakshmi's vision is to evolve as the pioneer of direct individual-based lending to the urban poor, outside the realm of the existing group based models.
BASIX is a livelihood promotion institution established in 1996, working with over a million and a half customers, over 90% being rural poor households and about 10% urban slum dwellers. BASIX works in 15 states - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Assam and over 10,000 villages. It has a staff of over 3500, of which 80 percent are based in small towns and villages.
Nisaraga Organization For Rural Development, based out of Mandya district in Karnataka, is working in the field of Health, Education, Environment, Community Development and Resource and Skill Development connected to Integrated Rural and Urban Development. Together with IIMPS it is providing old age income security to its vast membership.
Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
Registered under Societies Registration Act in 1996, having FCRA certification along with 12 A & 80 G under the Income Tax Act, NIDAN has been intensively working with informal workers of Bihar and outside. NIDAN facilitates a broad based movement for recognition and implementation of rights (to education, health and livelihood) of poor women and men and their children involved in the informal economy. The target Group Outreach has always been the unorganized worker / migrant workers / street Vendor / waste pickers and other informal sector workers.
The mission of IGS is "to undertake research and development in promoting supporting large number of sustainable rural livelihood as an integral part of the BASIX group of companies. To achieve this IGS would undertake micro interventions in potential livelihood supporting sub - sectors while building the capacity of the BASIX group of companies and community based organisations to support livelihoods".
Aajeevika Bureau was established in 2005 as a charitable trust. It is headquartered in Udaipur and it works through a network of field locations in Rajasthan and Gujarat. It is a specialized non-profit, public service organization set up to provide solutions, services and security to seasonal migrants who leave their villages to find work in cities, factories and farms.
Rajasthan Mahila Kalyan Mandal (RMKM) came into being in the year 1975, when heavy floods ravaged Ajmer. Since 1987, RMKM , has undertook a number of innovative projects for the development and relief of three main categories of people: (i) Women and girl-children (ii) Elderly and (iii) Mentally Retarded Children. In this specific project, 50 girl-students would get enrolled in regular schools and continue their education in the next academic year, after the project period is over. This would require counselling and interventions at the level of the girl-child, her family, as well as the community.
Prayas is a voluntary organization working for social, political and economic development in Chittorgarh district of southern Rajasthan. Established in 1979, Prayas, as the name suggests, is distinguished primarily by its evolving orientation. It has taken up many kinds of issues and undertaken a variety of projects with several, sometimes divergent approaches.
From its inception, Seva Mandir has sought to help the poor change their circumstances of deprivation. In the early phase of Seva Mandir's work, the focus was on promoting adult literacy among poor peasants. It was believed that with literacy, the poor would become more aware of their rights and entitlements. It was not long before Seva Mandir was made to realise that this single-minded stress on literacy was not enough. The organisation has extended the scope of its work to include developmental programmes that would benefit people in economic terms.
Pruthvi is a NGO engaged in rural development activities like education and health awareness programmes, micro finance activities by promoting SHGs and also providing financial support through local commercial banks.
Based out of Tumkur district in Karnataka, Social Welfare and Rural Development Society works towards formation of SHGs and linkages, income generating activities and micro finance education.
Policy Think tank
IIEF is India's leading pension policy think-tank. IIEF was established in 1990 to assist in financial policy analysis and formulation through objective research and education. Over the years, IIEF has worked in the areas of research and development, policy analysis and consulting, institutional capacity building, and financial literacy and public education.
Regulatory Bodies
Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority was established by the Government of India on 23rd August 2003 to promote old age income security by establishing, developing and regulating pension funds, to protect the interests of subscribers to schemes of pension funds and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Research Institutions
IDF is a privately funded, non-profit, non-partisan research foundation set up as a Trust in 2003. Its major objective is to develop awareness about how markets work, why they are desirable and how we can develop them. IDF aims to help policy makers transform emerging economies into market based societies.
IIMS Dataworks is India's only mass market research firm with a dedicated focus on understanding the Indian retail finance consumer. IIMS Dataworks has already invested in creating the first comprehensive, baseline cross-market view of finance consumers across rural and urban India. It will continue to invest in regularly refreshing and extending this view of retail finance consumer behaviour and preferences. In addition, IIMS Dataworks is using its proprietary finance consumer research for creating a range of 'consumer-centric' courses and tools.
State & Central Government
The Government of Rajasthan has launched India's first co-contributory pension scheme targeting low income informal sector workers. This “Vishwakarma Yojana” is being jointly managed by the Labour and Finance Departments of Rajasthan. The Government recently also launched no-frills bank accounts targeting BPL households across all 33 districts. Nearly 4 million bank accounts were opened under this drive.
IIMPS is providing consulting to MoF for expanding NPS Coverage. We are working closely with the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance for Pension Reforms.
IIMPS along with IIEF is assisting MOIA in design and delivery of co-contributory pension scheme to low income overseas migrant workers. The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) is a dynamic, young and interactive ministry, dedicated to the multitude of Indian Nationals settled abroad. Established in May 2004 as the Ministry of Non-Resident Indians’ Affairs, it was renamed as the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) in September 2004. Driven by a mission of development through coalitions in a world without borders, MOIA seeks to connect the Indian Diaspora community with its motherland
Workers Oriented Organisation
National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) was initiated by SEWA in September 1998 to bring together the street vendor organisations of India so as to collectively struggle for macro-level changes which had become imminent to support the livelihood of around 10 million vendors which stood severely threatened due to outdated laws and changing policies, practices and attitudes of the powers that be.
SEWA Bharat is a federation of SEWA member organisations, with the mandate to highlight issues concerning women working in the informal sector, and to strengthen the capacity of the organisations that serve the interests of these women. Presently nine such SEWA member organisations are working in 35 districts of seven states, and together they accounted for a total membership around 12,00,000.
Founded in 2002, NyayaBhoomi is a fiercely independent NGO. NyayaBhoomi becomes the first organization to use autorickshaws for advertising in an organized manner. Leveraging our sector knowledge and deep trust we enjoy with the drivers, we have built a model that gives unprecedented visibility to the advertiser and the benefits of insurance, pension, training, education and cash incentive to the driver