IFMR Research

IFMR Research’s vision is a world in which all individuals, households, and small businesses have access to the enabling financial services, legal and physical infrastructure, and social services that empower them to realize their aspirations. Each of the seven research centers that constitute IFMR Research defines its own mission that contributes to this common vision, including: access to financial services, improving opportunities to mitigate risk, improving public goods provision, and ensuring scientific evaluation of scalable solutions to meet the broad goals of our vision. Together, the centers of IFMR Research design and test appropriate financial products for the poor and for small businesses, evaluate public and private sector anti-poverty strategies, promote government transparency through better measurement of public goods outcomes and public expenditure processes, and partner with a wide array of public, private and non-governmental organizations to produce clear recommendations for policymakers and social entrepreneurs. The centers bring cutting-edge academic findings and a shared commitment to methodological rigor to bear on their projects, leveraging key partnerships with some of the top economists and development specialists in the world and a wide grassroots network in India. Inputs from the centers are used to continuously update IFMR’s academic programs. Scholars from the centers also deliver lectures on campus and IFMR’s faculty is engaged with them in research projects.

Centers set up at IFMR are:

Centre for Micro Finance (CMF): CMF’s mission is to help improve access to and quality of financial services for the poor in India through rigorous research, knowledge dissemination and evidence-based policy outreach.

Centre for Development Finance (CDF): CDF is an action research center focused on improving governments’ and markets’ capacity to channel finance into sustainable, holistic development.

Small Enterprise Finance Centre (SEFC): SEFC seeks to develop a vibrant SME sector through sustained advancement of research and practice of SME financing and growth in India by conducting and facilitating rigorous research programs in cooperation with first class researchers and institutions worldwide.

Centre for Insurance & Risk Management (CIRM): CIRM aims to develop risk mitigating instruments like insurance, derivatives and investments to reduce the vulnerability of the poor to the many risks they face.

Center for Advanced Financial Studies (CAFS): CAFS develops tools and concepts appropriate to market conditions in India and other emerging markets, provides research-based unbiased policy advice, and conducts post graduate programs that provide a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of modern finance. CAFS is also involved in executive education programs to bring the best current finance practices to professionals and tailor them to the needs of specific organizations.

Centre for Innovative Financial Design (CIFD): CIFD works at the intersection of research and action to create and test financial products that bridge the gap between the financial needs and the financial access of the poor. To ensure the success and scalability of ideas, CIFD’s work follows a cycle of design, pilot test and disseminate.

Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia: J-PAL South Asia seeks to improve the effectiveness of poverty programs in South Asia by providing policy makers with clear scientific results that help shape successful policies to combat poverty.