On 11 October 2016, Durham University Business School and the National Institute of Securities Markets in India (NISM), an educational organisation established by the Indian securities’ regulator, marked the partnership on innovative research investigating the level of financial literacy in India with a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding. As part of this research partnership, the Director of NISM will serve on the Advisory Board of the Banking, Risk and Intermediation research centre at Durham University Business School. The research is led by Dr Anurag Banerjee and Dr Dennis Philip.

The project will provide the first in-depth analysis of financial literacy to develop an understanding across India within varied socio-economic groupings and how financial education can be provided to improve the problems associated with financial exclusion.

Given the low levels of financial understanding, the research will enable more households to better understand financial products, increase their savings and help entrepreneurialism. In India, since 2000 there has been a 211% increase in wealth per capita and there is a growing need for more sophisticated products and correlated consumer understanding.

The outcome of the research will build on NISM’s first-ever country-wide financial survey, which revealed that less than 20% of Indian households could answer a series of basic financial questions. Once the research has been completed, a policy forum will be created to involve global authorities such as IMF and World Bank to discuss how to best adopt the measures outlined in the research.

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