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Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of India’s economy, driving growth and generating millions of jobs. Yet, despite their importance, MSMEs continue to face a massive credit gap. Traditional collateral-based lending often leaves them underserved, making access to timely and affordable credit one of their biggest challenges. Over the years, schemes like …
Continue reading “Cash Flow-Based Lending: Unlocking Credit Access for India’s MSMEs”
This blog continues our discussion on the techno-legal regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), building on our original post from 03.09.25—with a focus on key outstanding issues that required in-depth consideration, alongside the responses and questions we received from stakeholders as of 12.09.25. Question 1: Since technology is constantly evolving, wouldn’t relying on technology to enable …
Continue reading “FAQs and Facts on Techno-Legal Regulation 2.0”
This blog is an invitation to advance public discourse on techno-legal regulation of artificial intelligence (AI). It builds on an article by Rahul Matthan (15 January 2025), in which he raised reservations about applying techno-legal regulation to AI governance and expressed concerns about the practicability of techno-legal artefacts-particularly their ability to establish liability chains among …
Continue reading “FAQs and Facts on Techno-Legal Regulation”
In just a decade, India has redefined how nations can harness technology for the public good. Through Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), such as Aadhaar, UPI, and Account Aggregator, followed by newer innovations like OCEN and ONDC, India has shown the world how open, interoperable, and inclusive digital systems when designed as privately provisioned, public infrastructure; …
Continue reading “Lessons from India’s Digital Public Infrastructure Journey”
MSME Lenders need to start looking beyond AUM to truly value short-term loan pools. OCEN helps minimize loan processing costs and provide easy access to new borrower segments at scale. Specialized roles, including collections partners, help reduce the burden on lenders. Short-term lending products for marketplaces where Loan Agents also control the income-source for the …
Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) is designed to serve borrowers across all turnover bands — including micro and small businesses whose buyers are not large enough to qualify for TReDS. This inclusivity enables it to reach segments of the MSME sector that remain underserved by formal credit channels. OCEN’s ability to leverage alternative underwriting models, …
June 27 – International MSME Day Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the unsung heroes of India’s economy. Employing over 11 crore people and contributing nearly 30% to the country’s GDP, MSMEs are not just businesses – they are drivers of innovation, inclusion, and local development. On this MSME Day, we celebrate their resilience …
Continue reading “Empowering India’s Growth Engines: The Critical Role of Credit for MSMEs”
The Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) post its initial pilot deployment and continuous upgrades and improvements has seen growing participation across the ecosystem. OCEN’s transition from its early stages into the growth phase is now reflecting in its growing volumes and addition of new ecosystem partners. Monthly Progress Report: With the start of the new …
The volumes and traction on Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) continues to grow month on month. The growing trajectory highlights OCEN’s ability to streamline and democratise credit access for MSMEs by leveraging digital public infrastructure and fostering collaboration among lenders, agents, and technology providers. Here is a snapshot of the OCEN ecosystem’s key updates for …
Continue reading “OCEN: Credit Access for MSMEs continues to grow”
The Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) is steadily progressing from its early stages into a more robust growth phase. With its current ecosystem participants, OCEN has started facilitating smoother credit delivery to MSMEs. At the same time, numerous other players are integrating into the protocol and developing specialized loan offerings tailored to the needs of …
Continue reading “OCEN: Advancing Digital Public Infrastructure for MSME Credit Access”
There is a need for a continuous conversation about the best way to shape the future of Indian cities. This conversation will take place across multiple cities, with learnings from each other. Therefore, it is proposed to hold an ‘Imagining Indian Cities’ Workshop annually in different Indian places. The first of those took place in …
Continue reading “Imagining Indian Cities: #1 ‘Creative Bangalore’”
The Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) built on open network principles, unbundles MSME lending into specialized components, creating an ecosystem where different entities excel in one specific part of the lending process. These specialized entities focus on various tasks such as sourcing, distribution, identity verification, underwriting, capital arrangement, and collections. The result? A seamless, scalable …
Continue reading “OCEN: Enabling Credit for MSMEs with Digital Public Infrastructure”
iSPIRT Foundation, a technology think-and-do tank, believes India’s hard problems can be solved only by leveraging public technology for private innovation. iSPIRT, as a think-and-do-tank, pioneered the concept of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Industry watched and waited to see if this budget will have bold, strategic announcements with long-term vision, aiming for Viksit Bharat 2047. …
Continue reading “A Budget with Good Intentions but lacks drive to realize Viksit Bharat & EODB”
To succeed at AI, we need a whole-of-nation approach involving deep-tech startups, enabling industrial policy and pre-commercial publicly-funded research. When the Biden Administration released its AI Diffusion Executive Order a few weeks back restricting GPUs to countries, it became clear that having strategic autonomy in AI was of paramount importance to India. Just being the …
In the evolving landscape of financial inclusion and digital lending, India has introduced several innovative frameworks designed to streamline access to credit, enhance transparency, and create seamless financial ecosystems. Among these, the Unified Lending Interface (ULI), Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN), and Account Aggregator (AA) stand out as key initiatives aimed at modernizing the way …
Continue reading “Comparing Key Frameworks in the Digital Lending ecosystem: ULI, OCEN, and AA”