Financial Inclusion and Social Protection: A Case for India Post

Analysis of empirical evidence from three Indian states suggests that financial inclusion strategies may be inefficient if designed without accounting for the government social protection programmes. Social protection programmes generate additional needs for financial services among the poor, meeting which can also deepen the impact of such programmes. Being a government department and the largest financial service-providing network, India Post may be most suitably located to implement such synergistic strategies. An examination of the official data on India Post indicates that the approach of diversifying its financial products to target higher-end clients in largely urban areas may not be appropriate due to its competitive disadvantage. We argue that delivery of financial services through post offices, built around social protection, may contribute to financial inclusion in rural areas while improving revenues of India Post

Gender Diversity in Nomination Committee: A way to Promote Gender Balance on Board?

The promotion of gender balance within corporate boards is considered one of the tools to support the gender diversity in the society as a whole. Women in directorial positions generally perform as independent directors considering that the independence must or can be the criteria for the members of special board’s committees. This paper, by means of a descriptive analysis, would be a first step of a research project giving a picture of the situation of women on committee boards within the Italian listed companies, with a particular focus on nomination committee. This last assesses and considers the composition of the board and helps to prepare the list of candidates for board positions, according both with the ‘voting list’ rule (L.262/2005), and the gender quotas (L.120/2011). The research, considering 264 listed Italian companies, will focus on the gender composition of the nomination committee, in relation with gender composition of the board, and regarding different industries. Basing on the results, the paper aims at being the base for a future research aimed at highlighting a possible relation between the number of women in nomination committee and the gender composition of board, starting from the next boards’ appointments, which will occur with the L.120/2011 expired. This paper intends to fill the existing gap in the literature about women on board, emphasizing the role of nomination committee. Furthermore, this paper is a starting point for future researches extended to other countries, with potential practical implications, suggesting regulators to focus attention on committees’ composition, not only with regard to number and status of independence, but also with regard to gender