RBIH Swanari (स्व-नारी) Program

(Swanari is ‘Swanirbhar Nari’ meaning ‘Self Reliant Lady’)

Registrations for the Swanari TechSprint 2022 are now closed.

Women form a disproportionately large share of the world’s unbanked and underserved population, with nearly a billion women without access to financial services products.

The reasons behind women’s exclusion in India are complex and often interwoven with vulnerability for women more than men and underpinned by social norms. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected women’s economic participation, which remains unequal in advanced and emerging economies. Reducing the gender gap requires putting a gender lens on financial service design. Without fully including women, we won’t solve financial inclusion at its core, and promote shared prosperity.

We see the rise of FinTech in India as a promising opportunity to address this. Combining technology and a stronger focus on gender can provide better financial services to women and help them achieve financial security and independence.

‘Financial inclusion of women is particularly important for gender equality and the Swanari Program vision. With greater control over their financial lives, women can help themselves and their families to come out of poverty; reduce their risk of falling into poverty; eliminate their exploitation from the informal sector; and increase their ability to fully engage in measurable and productive economic activities’.

— National Strategy for Financial Inclusion, RBI – Shri Shaktikant Das, RBI Governor

The TechSprint

Registrations for the Swanari TechSprint 2022 are now closed.

Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) is hosting a virtual TechSprint from 18th-22nd April 2022 along with our core program partners AIR - the Alliance for Innovative Regulation, CIIE.CO, and MSC. The TechSprint, or ‘hackathon’ will run for five days bringing together FinTechs, financial service providers, innovators and subject matter experts to collaborate, ideate and solve specific problems and develop prototype solutions.

The Problem
Statements

To focus on the areas that will have the most impact we have worked closely with experts to identify seven problem statements that we would like participants of the TechSprint to solve. We have explored these themes in our whitepaper, which brings to life the challenges faced by women in India and how we believe digital financial services can help.

Download the Whitepaper

We have split the problem statements across the two tracks, focusing on five in each track:

Minimal Viable Product Track

How can we build solutions that improve digital and financial literacy for low literate/oral/vernacular segments of women using behavior-led designs?
How can we develop tech solutions that help women self-help group (SHG) members to frequently save small amounts digitally with their individual Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)/Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) accounts?
How can digital solutions enable banks to use alternate data (e.g on social trust, mobile usage, travel) to build safe and consent-based alternative credit scoring mechanisms for young single women and micro and small women entrepreneurs without detailed credit histories and an absence of collateral?
How can digital solutions increase access to credit products that meet the financial needs of micro and small women-led enterprises?
How can we improve user experience (ease, safety, grievance redressal) for women users of digital financial services?

Ideation and Design Track

How can we build solutions that improve digital and financial literacy for low literate/oral/vernacular segments of women users using behavior-led designs?
How can we develop tech solutions that help women self-help group (SHG) members to frequently save small amounts digitally with their individual Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)/Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) accounts?
How can digital solutions enable banks to use alternate data (e.g on social trust, mobile usage, travel) to build safe and consent based alternative credit scoring mechanisms for young single women and micro and small women entrepreneurs without detailed credit histories and an absence of collateral?
How do we leverage technology to get more women recruited as Business Correspondents?
How can digital solutions improve access to institutional and individual investors for women startup founders?