case study on financial services in india

• Case Study of the Indian Banking and Financial Services Industry using Strategic Tools

Finance is like Oil to the Engine of the Indian Economy

As finance is the grease and the oil that keeps the engine of any economy running, the BFSI sector assumes importance in this context. While the post independence era witnessed many large private banks that were either family or community run as well as some government owned banks, the nationalization of the banking sector in 1969 and the early 1970s meant that the government was the prime mover as far as banking and finance was concerned.

The situation of government ownership of banks continued well into the 1990s when the first wave of liberalization ensured that banks were now allowed to be privately owned. While multinational banks were always privately owned, most Indian banks were government owned or owned in a quasi governmental manner.

Even after liberalization, the RBI or the Reserve Bank of India proceeded cautiously as far as private ownership of the BFSI sector was concerned. However, this did not deter many firms such as the NBFCs or the Non Banking Financial Companies from operating and indeed, flouting the rules thereby leading to periodic bouts of crises.

Becoming World Class in their Practices and Dealing with Crises

Now, the BFSI sector in India is in a position where it can compete with its peers abroad and elsewhere mainly due to the pioneering efforts of the first wave of post liberalization banks such as HDFC and ICICI. No wonder that the Indian BFSI sector has become a dream job destination for millions of graduates in the technical and managerial institutes.

Having said that, at present, the BFSI sector in India is in crisis due to its profligate lending practices during the boom years of the first decade of the 21st century . Indeed, concomitant with the growth of the Indian Economy and the blistering pace of capacity addition as well as booming industries, the banks and financial institutions threw caution to the winds and engaged in indiscriminate lending without doing their due diligence.

For instance, during the heydays of growth between 2000 and 2008, banks, and financial institutions in India lent to just about anybody and the GFC or the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 resulted in such debts turning bad.

However, it is to the credit of the then ruling dispensation that the 2008 crisis and the global bust did not have major impacts on the Indian BFSI sector due to adequate oversight and regulation by the government in tandem with the RBI.

Having said that, some experts believe that what they did was to merely “kick the can down the road” without solving the problem and this in turn led to the ballooning of the NPAs or the Non Performing Assets to such an extent that at the moment, absent massive recapitalization, the Indian BFSI sector would be in major trouble soon.

PESTLE Analysis

In India, like in most developing countries, politics is inseparable from business and hence, the Indian BFSI Sector is indeed impacted heavily by the policies and the regulations that are passed by the ruling dispensations at the center . Moreover, given the high incidence of governmental and public sector ownership of the so-called State Run Banks, political interference is natural and a major input into the decision making process at the banks.

While experts have repeatedly called for lesser political interference in the running of the banks, most people agree that it is routine for lenders in the public sector and even the private sector to pay heed to requests from politicians as far as lending and other aspects are concerned. Moreover, the political masters appoint the chairpersons of the banks and financial institutions and this gives them a major say I the day to business practices at these entities.

Economic forces determine the workings of the BFSI sector and it is but natural that the economic environment plays a major role in the fortunes of the sector.

Whether it is liberalization or the GFC or the Demonetization measure, banks and financial institutions are heavily impacted by the macro and the micro economic forces. Indeed, both of them are important unlike in the West where the macro is often the main driver of performance of banks. The reason for this is that the Indian Economy has not yet matured to an extent where micro trends are insignificant.

For instance, small changes in consumer loans and personal finance segments is enough to cause major impacts on the workings and business practices of the firms in the BFSI sector. Having said that, the steady development and integration of the Indian Economy into the broader global economy has resulted in the macro gaining traction as the moving force of the BFSI sector.

The changing socio-cultural profiles and the demographic shifts underway among the Indian consumers does impact the Indian BFSI sector to a great extent. For instance, with the increase in the population of the youth, banks and financial institutions are offering ever more lucrative investment options to this segment.

In addition, Indians are now more risk prone as far as their investment patterns are concerned. This can be seen in the rising numbers of people taking personal, housing, consumer, and other loans to fund their extravagant lifestyles. Moreover, with the rise in consumerism, there has been a concomitant increase in the numbers of Indians holding credit cards and debit cards that are also in tune with the Indian Government’s Digital India push for payment avenues.

Indeed, taken together, what the changing sociocultural dynamics indicates is that the BFSI sector in India is at a stage where it is mimicking the consumer lending practices that are usually associated with the West.

Technological

It would be an understatement to say that there is a paradox at the heart of the Indian BFSI sector as far as impacts of technological advances are concerned. For instance, while banking is as old as the Indian Republic, it was only recently that the Indian BFSI sector took to technology in a big way. Once having done so, it ensured that its tech offerings were as good as those of the advanced countries with the added advantage of the Indian IT (Information Technology) industry being at the forefront of the adoption of technology in banking and finance.

Having said that, the paradox here is that while a certain percentage (some of would say miniscule) transacts online and the mobile channels with advanced tech, the majority of Indians are simply in the tech wilderness as far as their ability to leverage technology is concerned. Indeed, this is the reason why Demonetization and the concomitant push towards Digital Banking failed to take off as most Indians are not used to using tech enabled banking and payment channels.

Given the fact that the Indian Legal System is cumbersome and long winding, it is natural for banks and financial institutions in India to take the consumers for granted including trying out unconventional and often, legally dubious methods of loan recovery as well as selling of financial products.

Indeed, while there are many cases of fraud that are registered annually, the resolution, or the settlement of such cases is lackluster to say the least.

In addition, with the country having weak laws as far as cybercrime is concerned, the thousands of Indians who fall prey to phishing, cyber fraud, and online scams keeps growing without any meaningful solution to their woes. Thus, it can be said that there is an urgent need to rectify the situation.

Environmental

This aspect does not have much of an impact on the Indian BFSI sector since Green Lending and CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility business practices are yet to take off among the banks and financial institutions. Indeed, it is only recently that the banks and financial institutions started a separate department for these aspects and hence, the sector has a long way to go before it catches up in this regard.

SWOT Analysis

The main strength of the Indian BFSI sector lies in its ability to deliver volumes since India being a large and diverse country, offers the benefits of a humungous customer base. In addition, the Indian BFSI sector also relies on high net worth individuals who are a sizable segment of the population considering the number of Millionaires and Billionaires in the country. Apart from this, the Indian BFSI sector is also heavily driven by corporates who use it for their domestic and international operations.

Having said that, the most notable weakness of the Indian BFSI sector is its informal and unstructured lending and banking processes . Indeed, despite attempts by the RBI and the Finance Ministry, they have been unable to rein in the dubious practices followed by the banks and NBFCs.

For instance, the recent scandals involving well connected businesspersons and the allegations of misconduct that has been leveled indicates that crony capitalism is very much the case as far as the Indian BFSI sector is concerned. This in turn, raises serious questions about its ability to mature into a world class sector which does not bode well for the country’s aspiration to be a global player and a key pillar of the global economy.

Opportunities

On the other hand, there are humungous opportunities for the Indian BFSI Sector since the majority of the population is unbanked and especially in the rural areas where banks and formal financial sector firms do not have a presence.

Indeed, banking for the unbanked offers an unprecedented opportunity for the Indian BFSI sector as can be seen from the success of emerging banks such as Bandhan Bank.

Further, there are many options for the latest generation payments banks and other institutions that are cropping up to take advantage of the mobile and Smartphone penetration to leverage their existing banking channels.

However, there are dark clouds on the horizon for the Indian BFSI sector especially in terms of the rising bad loans and the NPAs (Non Performing Assets) which can bring down the banking sector if they are not managed in a structured manner. Indeed, it can be said that the Indian BFSI sector is facing an existential crisis as far as the problem of NPAs are concerned . added to this, someday or the other, the sector has to grow beyond its dubious and wink and nudge informal and personal collusion crony capitalist practices if it has to well and truly emerge as a global player.

The Reserve Bank of India and Demonetization

No discussion on the Indian BFSI sector is complete without examining the role of the RBI, the country’s mandated regulator. Starting in its pre independence and post independences periods of regulating the Indian BFSI sector to the privatization wave where it was tasked with maintaining monetary policy and its preeminent role in safeguarding the Indian Economy from external shocks such as the GFC of 2008, the RBI has indeed done a stellar job of stewarding the Indian BFSI sector.

Having said that, its neutrality and independence have been questioned in recent years especially with the Demonetization measure, and this has worrying trends for the future of the Indian BFSI sector.

Indeed, Demonetization could be counted as the most radical measure as far as the Indian Economy in the post independence era is concerned .

Though there were other notable moves such as nationalization and liberalization as well as devaluation of the Indian Rupee, Demonetization beats the other bold moves hollow with its singular thrust of being disruptive in nature.

It would not be an understatement to say that with this measure, the BFSI sector received such a jolt and a shock that the after effects would continue to be felt for years to come.

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• History of Modern Banking
• Central Banking in the United States
• Functions of a Central Bank
• Regulatory Role Performed By the Central Bank
• How Reserve Requirements Work ?
• Interbank Lending Markets and Repurchase Agreements
• Types of Products in Commercial Banking
• How Credit Rating Works ?
• Technology and Banking Delivery Channels
• Intermediaries to a Credit Card Transaction
• Fee Based Banking Services
• What Are Smart Cards and How are They Better than Credit Cards ?
• Risks Faced By Banks
• The Kingfisher Airlines Outrage
• What is Islamic Banking ?
• Retail Banking : Demand Deposit Products
• Retail Banking: Time Deposit Products
• Multiplier Effect: How Fractional Reserve Banking Creates Money ?
• Capital Adequacy Ratio
• The Three Basel Accords
• Shadow Banking - Meaning, Functions, Advantages & Disadvantages
• Internet Only Banks
• The ABC of Peer To Peer Credit
• Should “Too Big To Fail” Banks be Broken to Pieces ?
• Rigging the LIBOR
• Living in a Cashless Society
• Cashless Economy: Pros and Cons
• The Sinister Motive Behind Cashless Society
• The War on Cash
• Asset Reconstruction Companies
• Lockbox Service Provided by Banks
• Treasury Operations of Banks
• Hire Purchase Agreements
• United States and the Curse of Predatory Lending
• China’s Predatory Lending
• Fin Tech: The Future of Banking
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• How Technology has been a Game Changer for the Banking and Financial Services Sectors
• The Mega Scam in the Indian Banking System
• Privatization of India’s Public Sector Banks
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• Interest Rates and Their Effect on Small Businesses
• Deutsche Bank: The Fall of a Giant
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• Will The Fiat Money System Collapse?
• The Rise of Dynamic Discounting
• Demystifying the Mysterious, Glamorous, and Demanding World of Investment Banking
• Indian Banking Sector: Inter-Creditor Pacts
• Why Reserve Bank of India Spooked Investors?
• Why Should Central Banks Be Independent?
• The Downfall of Chanda Kocchar - India’s Rockstar Woman CEO
• BB&T and Sun Trust Bank Merger
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• The Inherent Conflict of Interest in Interest Rates Determination
• The Problem with Postal Banking
• The Wells Fargo Auto Insurance Scandal
• What is FinTech and How it Enables Banking and Financial Firms to Leverage Technology
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• Impact of the Fall of Silicon Valley Bank
• Rising Interest Rates: The Perfect Storm for The Silicon Valley Bank
• Poor Risk Management at the Silicon Valley Bank
• How Does The Failure of Silicon Valley Bank Affect Stakeholders
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• Can the Silicon Valley Bank Fiasco Cause a Recession?
• Silicon Valley Bank and Easy Money Policy
• Was The Silicon Valley Bank Bailed Out by the Government?
• Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP)
• Problems with Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP)

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India: Case Study on the Power of Fintech Innovation

The Indian payments landscape completely transformed over the last decade, catalyzed by a shift from cash, cards, and other traditional payment methods to real-time A2A payments, powered by the UPI network and mobile apps. This globally-relevant case study on fintech innovation and disruption was fueled by a crescendo of forces including government policies, banking infrastructure upgrades, and the influence of mobile phone technologies. Figure 1 shows the rapid ascent of UPI-powered mobile payments while usage of cash, cards, and prepaid wallets diminished in share of wallet. Within this article, we tell the story of the rapid transformation of payments in India, and what the future might hold.

Mobile Payments Disruption

Prior to UPI, Indian fintechs were already driving the market towards mobile payments, a push that started with the introduction of digital wallets powered by prepaid accounts such as the Paytm Wallet in 2014. These mobile wallets were propelled by India’s demonetization policy, a large scale macro-economic exercise implemented by the government to combat corruption and push for digital payments. In November 2016, the government of India discontinued the acceptance of all existing currency notes overnight (larger than Rs. 500), with the motive of replacing them by printing new notes. The policy led to a shortage of cash in the country forcing consumers to find digital alternatives. This created the perfect opportunity for fintechs such as Paytm to fill this gap by offering digital propositions designed for both consumer and merchant. Digital wallet adoption rate skyrocketed as consumers became more comfortable with mobile payments.

UPI Payments Explained

The introduction of UPI turbo-charged the pace of innovation and disruption in India. Unified Payments Interface or UPI, launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (established by the Reserve Bank of India) in 2016, is an account-to-account payment system that enables consumers and merchants to send and receive payments with real-time settlement. Currently UPI accounts for about two in every three retail non-cash transactions in India.

UPI is not an end-user product (not a mobile app), but a payment network, used by fintechs and banks who develop and distribute the mobile apps that power payments through the UPI network. Users can easily enable this payment method by creating a unique UPI identification key that is linked with the user’s bank account and mobile number. Many mobile payment apps such as PhonePe, GooglePay, and Paytm (among others) support UPI sign-up, initiation or receipt of payments to and from users’ bank accounts. For P2P transactions, users can simply use the mobile number linked with a UPI ID to transfer money instantly making the user experience extremely quick and frictionless.

Figure 3 illustrates the primary use cases for C2B (merchant) payments, which are enabled by QR codes. There are two types of QR codes used with UPI: Dynamic QR and Static QR. Larger merchants that have integrated payments at their point-of-sale, will utilize the dynamic QR code, which is generated upon billing and presents the customer with the exact amount to be paid. As software embedded payments are still relatively nascent in India, and limited to larger enterprises, static QR codes provide a simpler way for small merchants to receive payments without having an integrated POS system. The static QR only contains the UPI ID of the merchant and customer needs to manually input the amount to be paid. The key success factor for achieving a frictionless experience is that UPI transactions are real-time, allowing both consumers and merchants to receive instant notification of payment completion.

Government Incentive and The Real Cost of UPI

UPI’s rapid growth as a preferred means of C2B payments is fueled in part by a government policy for zero-cost UPI payments, which today, are free for both consumers and merchants (a policy introduced on 1 Jan 2020). The government does subsidize market participants, but this subsidy is small in comparison to the actual costs of the ecosystem (subsidies of c.$295 million in 2022 to merchant acceptance participants falls vastly short of the estimated total costs that are in excess of $1 billion). In the recently announced Budget for FY 2023-2024, the government reduced the subsidy amount to less than $200 million. According to ecosystem cost estimates from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on average, a C2B UPI transaction generates a total cost of approximately 0.25% considering the roles of the different stakeholders in the value chain. We break-down RBI’s cost estimates in Figure 4.

Due to India’s current zero-merchant-discount-rate policy, UPI C2B payments are unusually unprofitable for fintechs and banks. PSPs and app providers such as PhonePe, GooglePay, and Paytm (shares shown in Figure 5) are forced to find other sources of revenue such as bill payments and most notably, various forms of embedded credit to consumers and merchants. The lack of payments profitability is one reason why fintechs such as Paytm still struggle to achieve profitability. Paytm reported a -30.5% EBITDA margin for FY 2022, despite its scale and relatively long tenure in the market. The company did however, report a positive EBIDTA margin of c. 1.5% for the first time in Q3 FY 2023, which is attributed largely to expense reductions.

Some Indian market participants expect the ‘zero-cost’ policy to fade, resulting in more natural economic incentives for parties involved in C2B UPI transactions. Merchants continue to lobby in favor of the current policy, which seems to be working as the Indian Ministry of Finance announced last year that UPI is a digital good and the government has no intension of changing the current zero-cost policy. For now, there remains a tension between the massive fintech potential of UPI and the lack of payments profitability for UPI service providers.

Growth of Mobile Payments and Future Implications

India is now the global market leader for real-time A2A payments, but certainly not the only country which has seen a massive uptake in digital payments, as shown in Figure 6. This trend is replicated in other markets such as Brazil and Thailand, where A2A banking infrastructure combined with mobile means of payment are powering disruption. We do not see the same pace of A2A + mobile disruption in more mature western markets. This is a classic example of the ‘leapfrog effect’ in payments where less-developed markets evidence far more rapid innovation and disruption versus mature markets, where behaviors linked to cards are more deeply entrenched (formed over decades).

Countries around the world are drawn to the India (UPI) case study as they aspire for efficient, digital payments and alongside financial inclusion. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is working to internationalize UPI, recently signing a memorandum of understanding with 13 countries including Singapore, Thailand, France, Netherlands and the U.K. to enable acceptance of UPI outside the countries. NPCI is working with payment providers such as Worldline in Europe to implement Indian payment methods including RuPay and UPI in countries including Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Through this partnership, Worldline’s merchants in Europe will be able to accept UPI payments at the point-of-sale using QR codes.

The Reserve Bank of India also recently announced an agreement with the Monetary Authority of Singapore allowing interoperability between UPI and PayNow (Popular alternative payment method in Singapore). This allows users of both instant payment systems to use the other seamlessly without additional sign-ups and send money cross-border. This alliance is a unique global case study on interoperability of A2A schemes, and one which we expect to be replicated in other markets.

India is a perfect example of the power of fintech to transform an economy and the day-to-day lives of people. In less than a decade, India went from a wide-spread lack of financial inclusion to a country that is now leading the world in A2A-powered mobile payments. This success is the result of government policy working hand-in-hand with banking and fintech innovation. Going forward, however, the fintech community must tackle challenges posed by zero-cost payments, as while Indian consumers and merchants benefit from payments innovation, shareholders are still searching for return on investment.

Please do not hesitate to contact Joel Van Arsdale at [email protected] with comments or questions.

Sameer Verma

Joel Van Arsdale

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Past Perfect, Future Tense? Themes shaping the future of Fintechs in India

Prateek Roongta Rajaram Suresh Sheetal Jasrapuria

Indian Fintechs have been the posterchild of India’s digital growth story, with their growth propelled by a surplus of capital, maturing infrastructure and favorable underlying customer demographics. The good news for Fintechs is that India’s digital infrastructure is only expected to further mature and the underlying demand growth is expected to stay strong. This paper crystallizes the existing and emerging secular themes underpinning the success of fintechs thus far. However, the Fintechs will also have to operate in an environment with regulator(s) that are increasingly nationalistic, pro-consumer, and vigilant; licensed incumbents who are strengthening their digital capabilities; increasingly affluent and digitally savvy customers who are hungry for their financial needs to be met digitally; and most importantly, a large base of mass customers waiting to be digitally educated and serviced. The paper dives deeper into the granular vertical-specific themes that will shape the future of fintechs and the implications on payments, lending, wealth, insurance and Web3 fintechs.

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Gulfood dubai 2023, financial services, financial services in india, india has emerged as one of the fastest-growing fintech markets in the world with a market size estimated at us$ 150 billion by 2025., advantage india, growing demand.

* The AUM of the Indian MF Industry has grown from US$ 110.63 billion (Rs. 9.16 trillion) in 2014, to US$ 658.72 billion (Rs. 54.54 trillion) in 2024, growing ~6x in a span of 10 years.

* Investment corpus in Indian insurance sector might rise to US$ 1 trillion by 2025.

* With >2,100 fintechs operating currently, India is positioned to become one of the largest digital markets with rapid expansion of mobile and internet

* India benefits from a large cross-utilization of channels to expand reach of financial services.

* Emerging digital gold investment options.

* In the Union Budget 2022-23 India announced plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) which will be known as Digital Rupee.

Policy support

* The government has approved 100% FDI for insurance intermediaries and increased FDI limit in the insurance sector to 74% from 49% under the Union Budget 2021-22.

Growing Penetration

* Credit, insurance and investment penetration is rising in rural areas.

* HNWI participation is growing in the wealth management segment.

* Lower mutual fund penetration of 5-6% reflects latent growth opportunities.

Financial Services Industry Report

Introduction.

India has a diversified financial sector undergoing rapid expansion both in terms of strong growth of existing financial services firms and new entities entering the market. The sector comprises commercial banks, insurance companies, non-banking financial companies, co-operatives, pension funds, mutual funds and other smaller financial entities. The banking regulator has allowed new entities such as payment banks to be created recently, thereby adding to the type of entities operating in the sector. However, the financial sector in India is predominantly a banking sector with commercial banks accounting for more than 64% of the total assets held by the financial system.

The Government of India has introduced several reforms to liberalise, regulate and enhance this industry. The Government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have taken various measures to facilitate easy access to finance for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). These measures include launching Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for MSMEs, issuing guidelines to banks regarding collateral requirements and setting up a Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA). With a combined push by Government and private sector, India is undoubtedly one of the world's most vibrant capital markets.

Market Size

As of February 2024, AUM managed by the mutual funds industry stood at US$ 658.72 billion (Rs. 54.54 trillion).

Inflow in India's mutual fund schemes via systematic investment plans (SIP) from April’ 23 to February’ 24 stood at Rs. 1.79 lakh crore (US$ 21.73 billion).

Equity mutual funds registered a net inflow of Rs. 22.16 trillion (US$ 294.15 billion) by end of December 2021. The net inflows were US$ 888 million (Rs. 7,303.39 crore) in December as compared to a 21-month low of US$ 274.8 million (Rs. 2,258.35 crore) in November 2022.

Another crucial component of India’s financial industry is the insurance industry. The insurance industry has been expanding at a fast pace. The total first-year premium of life insurance companies reached US$ 32.04 billion in FY23. In FY23 (until December 2022) non-life insurance sector premiums reached US$ 22.5 billion (Rs. 1.87 lakh crore).

Furthermore, India’s leading bourse, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), will set up a joint venture with Ebix Inc to build a robust insurance distribution network in the country through a new distribution exchange platform. In FY23, US$ 7.17 billion was raised across 40 initial public offerings (IPOs). The number of companies listed on the NSE increased from 135 in 1995 to 2,113 by FY23 (till December 2022).

According to the statistics by the Futures Industry Association (FIA), a derivatives trade association, the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE) emerged as the world’s largest derivatives exchange in 2020 in terms number of contracts traded. NSE was ranked 4th worldwide in cash equities by number of trades as per the statistics maintained by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) for CY2020.

Investments/Developments

The Financial Services Industry has seen major achievements in the recent past:

• In February 2024, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded 12.10 billion transactions worth Rs. 18.28 lakh crore (US$ 220.77 billion).
• The number of transactions through immediate payment service (IMPS) reached 534.6 million (by volume) and amounted to Rs. 5.58 trillion (US$ 68.61 billion) in February 2024
• India’s PE/VC investments were at US$ 77 billion in 2021, which was 62% higher than in 2020.
• In 2021, Prosus acquired Indian payments giant BillDesk for US$ 4.7 billion.
• In September 2021, eight Indian banks announced that they are rolling out—or about to roll out—a system called ‘Account Aggregator’ to enable consumers to consolidate all their financial data in one place.
• In September 2021, Piramal Group concluded a payment of US$ 4.7 billion (Rs. 34,250 crore) to acquire Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL).

Government Initiatives

Some of the major Government Initiatives are:

• In 2023, the government revamped the credit guarantee scheme. The inflow of US$ 1.08 billion (Rs. 9,000 crores) into the corpus of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) will give MSMEs more access to collateral-free loans.
• In September 2021, the international branch of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), NPCI International Payments (NIPL), has teamed with Liquid Group, a cross-border digital payments provider, to enable QR-based UPI payments to be accepted in 10 countries in north and southeast Asia.
• On September 30, 2021, the Reserve Bank of India communicated that the applicable average base rate to be charged by non-banking financial companies – micro-finance institutions (NBFC-MFIs) to their borrowers for the quarter beginning October 1, 2021, will be 7.95%.
• On September 30, 2021, the IFSC Authority constituted an expert committee to recommend an approach towards the development of a sustainable finance hub and provide a road map for the same.
• In August 2021, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi launched e-RUPI, a person and purpose-specific digital payment solution. e-RUPI is a QR code or SMS string-based e-voucher that is sent to the beneficiary’s cell phone. Users of this one-time payment mechanism will be able to redeem the voucher at the service provider without the usage of a card, digital payments app, or Internet banking access..

India’s financial services industry has experienced huge growth in the past few years. This momentum is expected to continue. India’s private wealth management Industry shows huge potential. India is expected to have 16.57 lakh HNWIs in 2027. This will indeed lead India to be the fourth-largest private wealth market globally by 2028. India’s insurance market is also expected to reach US$ 250 billion by 2025. This will further offer India an opportunity of US$ 78 billion in additional life insurance premiums from 2020-30.

India is today one of the most vibrant global economies on the back of robust banking and insurance sectors. The relaxation of foreign investment rules has received a positive response from the insurance sector, with many companies announcing plans to increase their stakes in joint ventures with Indian companies. Over the coming quarters, there could be a series of joint venture deals between global insurance giants and local players.

The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) is targeting a nearly five-fold growth in AUM to US$ 1.15 trillion (Rs. 95 lakh crore) and more than three times growth in investor accounts to 130 million by 2025.

India's mobile wallet industry is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 23.9% between 2023 and 2027 to reach US$ 5.7 trillion.

According to Goldman Sachs, investors have been pouring money into India’s stock market, which is likely to reach >US$ 5 trillion, surpassing the UK, and become the fifth-largest stock market worldwide by 2024.

Note: The conversion rate used for March 2024 is Rs. 1 = US$ 0.012

References:  Media Reports, Press Releases, IRDAI, General Insurance Council, Reserve Bank of India, Union Budget 2023-24

Related News

India's market capitalisation to GDP ratio at 15-year high of 140%, with combined mcap of companies trading on BSE is US$ 4.9 trillion (Rs. 416 trillion).

PGIM India Asset Management aims to double its assets under management to Rs 50,000 crore within 2-3 years, driven by expanding its product range and focusing on Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) amidst a booming Indian mutual fund industry.

Moody's Ratings has forecasted Indian economy to grow by 6.6% in the fiscal year 2025 and 6.2% in the subsequent year. This expected growth is anticipated to drive robust credit demand, which will support the profitability of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) in India.

The AAUM in northeastern states soared by 145% from US$ 1.97 billion (Rs. 16,446 crore) in March 2020 to US$ 4.83 billion (Rs. 40,324 crore) in March 2024, signalling rising investor interest in mutual funds.

In April, 54% of equity mutual funds beat benchmarks, with 143 out of 265 schemes exceeding performance forecasts.

Leading Asset Management Companies (AMCs) in India (as of Q4 FY22)

Industry Contacts

• Ministry of Finance
• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)
• Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA)
• Reserve bank of India (RBI)
• Association of Mutual Funds In India
• Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology
• India Banks Association

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• Introduction

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• Sector Snapshots

Financial Services Sector

Chapter ten financial services sector.

• India's financial services sector typifies the progress and opportunity of its economy. The sector will grow rapidly out to 2035, driven by rising incomes, heightened government focus on financial inclusion and digital adoption – India's digital payments could pass $1 trillion by 2030.
• As the Indian market matures, Australian businesses could partner with Indian financial services companies in sectors that align with our competitive strengths in asset management, general insurance and fintech.
• Partnership opportunities will be niche, targeting the economically advanced parts of India and in segments not dominated by state-owned enterprises.
• While Australian expertise may not be transferable on a large scale to an Indian context given differences in target markets and goal orientation, India's financial services sector will become more globally connected.
• Success in India will require strong local knowledge and a willingness to operate on longer time horizons than Australian financial services firms are used to, and for India to have made progress in regulatory clarity and investor protections.
• Out to 2035, technological change will have a transformational effect on this sector. India is set to benefit and could leapfrog Australia while our industry struggles with legacy systems.
• While the financial services sector and investment decisions are commercially-led, government can play a role in bridging knowledge and expectations gaps.
• Sharing Australia's regulatory experience and work on setting standards with Indian policy makers could also facilitate commercial engagement.

1.0 The macro story

Key judgement.

India's financial services sector is poised to grow on the back of rising incomes, significant government attention and the increasing pace of digital adoption. The long term fundamentals of the sector are sound, but the Indian Government's openness to private players and foreign participation is likely to remain patchy. Australia's competitive strengths include an efficiently regulated domestic sector, high volume of funds under management and niche sector expertise, which align with India's ambitions for improving its financial services sector. However, differences in market drivers will limit the transferability of Australian expertise to an Indian context.

1.1 The scale and key structural drivers of the sector

Indian demand.

Rising incomes will drive demand for financial services across income brackets in India, including in insurance and retail banking services

• the number of HNWIs is forecast to triple to over 1.2 million by 2030 96
• Mumbai alone is projected to have an economy in 2030 as big as Malaysia today. 69

High competition and many local players limit opportunities in the Indian retail banking sector

• privatisation is unlikely, but the need to improve provision of credit could see the Indian Government approve the entry of more private banks
• fragmentation has forced a large number of smaller private banks to compete on price and thin profit margins
• regulations in place since 1972 require at least 40 per cent of bank lending to be directed to agriculture and 'economically weaker' sectors.

India's state-owned Life Insurance Corporation holds over 75 per cent of the life insurance market while 20 other firms compete for the remaining share 12

• industry premiums, coverage and pay-out rules are highly regulated and subject to frequent change
• Indian companies have strong distribution networks and local expertise, and foreign players may struggle to identify suitable segments of the market to target.

There is greater capacity for private sector and foreign entrants in general insurance, which is expected to grow between 13–19 per cent annually out to 2025, especially since many Indian insurance firms lack expertise in product development. 97

CASE STUDY: Future Fund: Successful investment in the future means taking a long view

With its high growth economic trajectory, structural reforms aimed at lifting productivity and recent loosening of foreign investment caps, India offers genuine investment opportunities for Australian institutional investors.

Australia's sovereign wealth fund, Future Fund, has found success by pursuing a long term investment horizon and moving away from using quarterly benchmarks to define performance.

Rather than focusing primarily on equities, Future Fund has selected investments in alternative asset classes such as infrastructure, property, private equity and hedge funds. This diversification gives an edge across geographies and emerging economies.

The Future Fund approach requires a sophisticated understanding of risk – and it pays rewards. Future Fund has delivered returns of 7.7 per cent over its first 10 years of operation – a performance that has captured international attention and strengthened its brand.

Future Fund acknowledges that investing in India comes with challenges, particularly the lack of recognition of sovereign immunity for tax purposes.

Further reforms to address sovereign risks that impact on the stability of cash flows will continue to grow India's attractiveness as an investment destination. In particular, Future Fund is watching for success in combating corruption, improving regulatory quality and the rule of law surrounding investor protection.

Demand will also rise for financial services at the lower end of the income spectrum

• the Government of India has made financial inclusion a top priority by launching and expanding multiple programs, creating and strengthening transparency and digital systems, and enforcing regulatory measures to increase competition
• government efforts to persuade cash-based vendors to embrace formal banking, including through device-based and digital payments, will also accelerate financial services demand from micro and SMEs
• Australian firms, however, do not have experience or expertise in serving this market.

Indian supply

Fast digital adoption from consumers and skilled IT clusters, such as those in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, will continue driving the expansion of India's fintech industry, which is expected to double between 2016 and 2020 to $3.2 billion 142

• the rate of technological change makes it difficult to forecast long term projections of the size of the fintech market in India.

The development of India's technological and entrepreneurial ecosystem will make it easier to expand the financial services market into regional and rural areas

• while financial inclusion has been a focus of Indian policy makers for decades progress is now being seen
• for example, the rollout of the Aadhaar card, a national biometric identification system now covering over one billion people, creates a comprehensive picture of prospective customers.

Indian fintech companies are driving change by specialising in targeted services along specific parts of the value chain which were previously the domain of brick and mortar companies

• for example, aggregators like BankBazaar.com offer a range of services such as loans, credit cards, deposits and insurance, and receive payments from banks for assisting in new business generation
• India offers the highest expected return on investment on fintech projects, at 29 per cent (not risk adjusted) versus a global average of 20 per cent. 143

India's mutual funds segment is sizeable, equivalent to approximately one-tenth of the country's GDP 144

• growth prospects are good, given India's high savings rate and its well-developed equity market.

The equity mutual funds market, with a boost from demonetisation, saw its assets under management cross $430 billion in 2017, double what it was three years earlier

• further development in the mutual funds sector will be hampered by modest demand beyond tier one cities, a lack of asset class diversity and narrow pension coverage.

India's pension system is at a nascent stage, dealing with challenges related to customer awareness, penetration and regulation

• pension funds under management stand at 1.1 per cent of GDP – compared to 1.5 per cent of GDP in China – and its subscriber base of 8.7 million is a small fraction of the working population 99
• India's regulatory framework limits investment avenues for money raised through pensions
• however, this is changing with the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation granted approval to invest a part of its assets into exchange traded funds.

But the demand for pensions is expected to rise considerably out to 2035 on the back of an increase in the elderly population, a higher life expectancy and decrease in the prevalence of the extended family structure

• this creates a pressing need to create a robust pension system in India, which would raise investment prospects, including for foreign companies.

Australia's competitive advantage

Australia has a competitive advantage across three areas of the financial services sector: capital, expertise and regulation.

Australia has a financial assets sector worth $8 trillion, four and a half times our GDP

• our funds management sector, with $2.7 trillion under management, is the sixth largest pool of funds under management globally and the largest in Asia
• the balance of Australia's sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, is approaching $140 billion and has delivered returns of 7.7 per cent per annum since inception.

Australia's highly evolved pension system ranks second in Asia-Pacific on penetration with 70 per cent of the population contributing to a pension scheme

• on measures of adequacy, sustainability and integrity, our pension system is regarded ahead of the United Kingdom, United States and Canada
• the lack of competition in the Australian market, in which less than 5 per cent of Australian members actively switch funds, may diminish the appetite for Australia's pension funds to compete overseas.

Australia's deep capital markets and sophisticated financial services system have been built on the back of a strong regulatory system

• Australia's regulatory framework has combined a necessary oversight role with the flexibility for industry to innovate and take advantage of new technology
• this could be used more effectively as an asset to engage the Indian financial sector.

We are renowned for our financial services acumen and product development

• the 2018 Global Financial Centres Index ranked Sydney and Melbourne at 9th and 12th respectively amongst the world's financial centres. xxviii

Australia is a global fintech hub, ranking fifth in the world in the 2017 Ernst & Young Fintech Adoption Index

• this makes Australia an attractive market for the launch and expansion of fintech products.

1.2 How the sector will likely evolve out to 2035

Growth in foreign investment.

Growth in India's financial services sector out to 2035 will be driven by expected increases in FDI and FPI, particularly into Indian infrastructure [ see Chapter 2: The Investment Story and Chapter 9: Infrastructure Sector ].

Despite India's high savings rate, the country will be an importer of capital to meet its growth ambitions

• while the relaxation of some FDI limits has spurred significant capital inflow in the last 12 to 24 months, the double digit return potential across large parts of India's financial services sector, including infrastructure, has yet to spark the magnitude of foreign investor activity India's Government had hoped.

Foreign investors may be waiting for evidence that Indian policy makers are serious about introducing new financing models to facilitate greater private sector participation

• efforts already underway by the Indian Government to attract foreign investment, such as the establishment of an equity fund in the form of the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, could help reduce some of the risk profile for foreign investors, including from Australia
• however, India's financial markets have not matured to the point where they can realistically use bonds to fund infrastructure, and there is little indication that addressing this will be a priority for Indian governments in the medium term.

New technologies and rising consumer expectations will re-shape the sector globally

The financial services industry is on the cusp of substantial change

• rapidly advancing technologies, rising consumer expectations and disruptive innovations will reshape the structure of the industry across the globe.

In India, the extent to which changes are evolutionary or revolutionary will depend on whether incumbents continue to develop technologies in-house, acquire or partner with new entrants to rollout technologies, or whether the new products bypass existing intermediaries and markets.

Changes to India's financial system

The pace of change in India's financial system has the potential to be faster than in other countries due to the rapid take up of digital devices combined with India's track record of frugal innovation.

Technology leapfrogging in telecommunications, in which India will jump past the fibre cable stage to mobile network infrastructure, will be central to the future development of India's financial services sector

• mobile phone penetration in India is set to rise to 85–90 per cent by 2020 (from the current levels of 65–75 per cent in 2017), while the smartphone user base is expected to expand to about 500 million people in the same period. 98 , 100

Other digitisation projects, such as the United Payment Interface and associated mobile application Bharat Interface for Money – a safe, instant payment system – and DigiLocker, a cloud based platform for authentication and sharing of identity documents, will be linked to customers through Aadhaar

• the result could revolutionise document processing and enable end-to-end digital credit underwriting.

By 2025, digital finance is forecast to boost India's GDP by $950 billion and create 21 million new jobs. 101

With an assist from the demonetisation campaign, the digital payments sector in India is expected to benefit the most from rising technological adoption in India

• digital payments could grow as much as tenfold to $500 billion by 2020 102 and pass the $1 trillion mark by 2030 103
• digital banking adoption will also continue its rapid ascent
• from 2013–16, the average volume of monthly transactions at ATMs increased 1.5 times, EFTPOS by 2.7 times, mobile banking by 9.6 times and e-wallets by 11 times.

Adoption of new technologies and processes, including blockchain ledgers, could reduce the cost of managing loans and make microfinancing commercially feasible

• the NITI Aayog-led IndiaChain plans to implement a fully-fledged blockchain infrastructure that uses 'electronic Know Your Customer' and Aadhaar to reduce fraud, speed up enforcement of contracts and increase transparency of transactions
• microfinancing for commercial purposes will require a change in India's banking culture, which has traditionally preferred to lend large amounts to limited clients rather than lending small amounts at scale
• while India's incumbent players may not be agile enough to adjust, they are unlikely to hinder new firms that may look to service this market.

The need for cyber security and personal data privacy will inform how financial institutions approach off-shoring, data storage and the use of big data [ see Chapter 13: Defence and Security ].

Fintech start-ups are already encroaching on established financial services markets

• unencumbered by legacy systems, they are developing customer friendly solutions from the ground up
• the most successful Indian fintech company to date has been Paytm, an electronic payment and e-commerce giant with over 200 million users.

Big data analytics will allow financial service providers to target and tailor products and services with greater precision

• firms can anticipate needs, price offerings and risk more effectively.

In financial services, brand loyalty and effectiveness of discounts will decline as value will increasingly be derived from the degree of personalisation and adaptability of the product

• platforms may emerge to give consumers the ability to build a portfolio of financial services from many providers that meets their specific needs
• in insurance, for example, business models could shift from being a reactive claim payer to preventative risk advisor.

CASE STUDY: Insurance Australia Group: Strong prospects in the Indian general insurance market

State Bank of India General Insurance Company (SBI General), is a joint venture between Insurance Australia Group (IAG) and the State Bank of India (SBI), India's largest and oldest bank with more than 24,000 branches across India.

SBI General was established in late 2009 and commenced operations in 2010, building a portfolio in the corporate, retail and SME markets across India. SBI owns 74 per cent of SBI General and IAG 26 per cent. IAG has an option to increase its shareholding to 49 per cent, following the March 2015 insurance law amendment to the foreign direct investment limit.

SBI General has continued to grow strongly and has achieved significant growth from nil revenue in 2010 to $750 million of Gross Written Premium in 2017, reaching 14th in the market with a 2.3 per cent market share.

However, such successes have not been without challenges. The development stage of the Indian economy and the insurance industry means regulatory frameworks continue to evolve rapidly which creates some uncertainty for investors/shareholders. There is also less concern and protocol in relation to making retrospective regulatory/legal changes. An example would be retrospective changes that impacted foreign shareholders' rights in JV Agreements, forcing them to be re-written with rights removed. Cultural differences, both generally and commercially, also create different processes and benchmarks for assessing what makes good or bad sense in relation to business decisions.

Nevertheless, enormous growth and significant portions of the market remain untapped. The non-life insurance industry grew by 18.9 per cent in the opening nine months of fiscal year ending 31 March 2018, led by the new government backed agricultural insurance schemes and increased penetration in motor insurance.

The healthy growth rate is expected to continue as economic growth boosts disposable income and the insurance market expands to reach more first-time buyers. A rapidly growing middle class is also driving increased insurance penetration and density, while a strong development/growth drive in commerce needs to be balanced with profit ambitions.

2.0 Opportunities for partnership

Australian industry can benefit from India's financial inclusion drive and economic modernisation by investing in segments of the financial services sector that are open to foreign participation, such as general insurance, or providing services to enable investment in other sectors, such as infrastructure.

Australian expertise in financial services may not be transferable on a large scale to an Indian context because of a misalignment in target markets and goal orientation. Australian industry is primarily focused on making a profit and products are geared to a sophisticated investor base, whereas India's financial ecosystem has a marked social undertone.

Niche opportunities will emerge as India's capital markets mature, including in asset management and fintech collaboration.

There is also potential for Australian financial institutions to source fintech capabilities and skills from India.

2.1 Export opportunities

Australia's engagement with India's financial services sector has been cautious

• in 2016–17, Australia exported $54 million in financial and insurance services to India and imported $31 million.

The biggest opportunities in financial services will be in joint ventures and investment rather than exports.

2.2 Collaboration

Fintech services.

Australia and India have complementary strengths in fintech

• Australia has emerged as a global fintech hub given our flexible regulatory regime, a technology-embracing banking culture and a steady flow of global funding
• there is scope for Australian capital and experience to partner with Indian talent to create world-class digital solutions
• India can also benefit from using new technology to leapfrog the legacy systems that may hold back Australian firms.

However, differences in goal alignment may limit how this works in practice

• India's fintech ecosystem places a greater priority on social development – helping to bank the unbanked or delivering low-cost products and services to the most price-sensitive customers
• gaining an understanding of this market will be challenging for Australian fintechs, who operate with a more mature market in mind and on a for-profit first basis, with products geared to a higher-income retail and corporate market.

There will be niche collaboration opportunities where target markets overlap, such as in personal financial information tools, commodities trading, remittances, contract management and export financing

• these opportunities will be patchy in the short term and may be hindered by the lack of regulatory clarity in the fintech industry
• as fintech standards and governance become clearer and more services enter the mainstream, the potential for collaboration will increase.

Many Australian banks are ramping up their in-house fintech capabilities in an effort to provide end to end solutions

• the scarcity of specialised technology skills in Australia could lead Australian banks to consider basing their fintech innovation hubs in India, where Australian banks think highly of the quality of India's engineering and IT talent
• this would also help balance the employment drawdown in India caused by technology cannibalising employment in back office functions
• the scale and nature of this opportunity will depend in part on whether the fintech sector will turn into one that primarily competes with established players like banks or collaborates with them.

Australia is ahead of the curve on blockchain technology

• blockchain has the potential to remove layers of overhead costs dedicated to confirming authenticity or reconciling transactions between parties in the financial sector
• according to a 2016 study by IBM, roughly 65 per cent of banks globally are expecting to have blockchain solutions in production by 2020 104
• blockchain applications could extend beyond financial services to bring greater transparency and efficiency from energy markets to supply chain logistics.

India is attuned to the need to develop a better understanding of blockchain if the technology is to be used for economic modernisation

• while the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is considering the regulatory aspects of the technology, Indian banks have undertaken pilot blockchain transactions with other banks
• this could build trust for Australia to expand bilateral cooperation and tighten interoperability as applications move beyond financial services to other sectors of the economy.

Asset management

The opportunity for Australian asset managers to partner with Indian mutual funds companies will be a medium term one

• it will depend on a steep change in financial literacy in India as well as an increase in pension fund and insurance subscription
• mutual funds are not currently the investment vehicle of choice for Indian households, making up only 3 per cent of total investment in financial assets by Indians. 105

As the Indian market matures, Australian businesses could combine capital and expertise in using technology to develop consumer-centric products and expand distribution networks

• even as the Indian investor market becomes more sophisticated, the typical asset allocation will look vastly different to that of Australia
• investment houses with expertise in non-core assets and venture capital would be more suited to India.

As with any joint venture arrangement, particularly in India, partner selection and goal alignment is paramount

• foreign firms that have entered the asset management sector without a local partner have often exited the market
• challenges include a lack of brand awareness in smaller cities and an inability to expand distribution networks without significant upfront cost and time commitments.

Australia is world-leading in asset management, bolstered by a sophisticated investor base, strong financial institutions, innovative products and a mandatory superannuation scheme

• but Australian asset managers may see little value in expanding into challenging overseas markets like India as they benefit enormously from the flow of compulsory contributions in the domestic sector
• moreover, the relatively small size of Australia's asset management firms may make it more difficult to enter into a mutually beneficial joint partnership with a substantially larger Indian partner.

Policy and regulatory cooperation

We should improve institutional ties in financial services segments where both Australia is world-leading and India is reform-leaning

• government engagement could facilitate the entry of more Australian players in this space and improve growth prospects for Australian companies investing in India's financial services sector, and vice versa
• India will also have opportunities to absorb regulatory best practice through their exposure to the Basel process and Financial Stability Board.

The most prospective area for regulatory cooperation is in fintech

• India is in the early stages of developing its fintech regulatory architecture
• the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is well placed to work with India on fintech regulatory cooperation.

Both countries will also benefit from establishing robust international standards in the blockchain industry, which will provide market confidence and trust that proprietary information and money will remain safe

• it will help provide a common language for industry, policy makers, regulators and technology developers, and the basis for interoperability, as the use of blockchain expands.

Cyber security

Financial services organisations face some of the most challenging threats to their cybersecurity as the convenience of modern consumer banking – including ATMs, point-of-sale systems and mobile banking – has vastly increased the number of endpoints that need to be protected

• banks are also responsible for some of the most sensitive consumer and corporate data and risk serious reputational damage in case of a breach
• the banking sector is the largest user of cybersecurity products and services in Australia.

While cyber security is a nascent industry in Australia, Australia's well-functioning and effective cyber security entities can tap into the cyber security segment in India in software, services and training [ see Chapter 13: Defence and Security ].

2.3 Investment

Institutional investment.

There is significant attention but little knowledge in India of Australian super funds beyond headline figures of funds under management

• but Australian institutional investors are generally domestically focused, weighted towards equities and have an eye to short term results.

An average of 30 per cent of Australian super fund investments are in equities where returns are expected to decline

• these funds may eventually seek alternate investment options in higher growth markets such as India, which could emerge as a high-risk, high-return option.

Investors looking to boost returns could also consider the Future Fund's approach to India

• the Future Fund readily acknowledges the challenges of investing in India, including the legal system, ease of doing business and regulatory barriers
• but the Future Fund's footprint in India is increasing with investments across a number of asset classes
• it holds a long term outlook and is diversified across asset class and geographies, and recognises India's long term growth potential, strong economic structural reform agenda and ongoing political stability.

General insurance

The projected increase in insurance take-up in India out to 2035 provides an opportunity in the medium term for Australian companies to tap into India's general insurance market

• the health insurance premium share of total general insurance is expected to increase from 22 per cent in 2013 to up to 31 per cent by 2025. 97

India is seeking foreign capital and expertise in digital distribution to support local firms to expand into regional and rural areas

• foreign firms that specialise in servicing a mature market have opted to acquire stakes in local companies, rather than establishing a joint venture or foreign subsidiary
• this provides access to an established brand and distribution network without the upfront costs and time involved to build a presence and on-the-ground relationships.

Opportunities for Australian companies in the insurance sector will be hindered by the ongoing market dominance of Indian state-owned enterprises

• Australian insurance firms looking to enter the Indian market may wish to consider joint ventures with Indian state-owned firms.

Joint venture arrangements in the insurance sector have worked for those prepared to invest time and align business cultures and personnel

• for example, Insurance Australia Group and India's SBI General Insurance
• other Australian firms may need to wait until FDI norms are relaxed further to find the right opportunity to meaningfully participate in this sector.

3.0 Constraints and challenges

India's financial services sector is heavily regulated and dominated by state-owned enterprises. Though foreign investment caps are likely to be relaxed out to 2035, structural inefficiencies and red tape will linger. The constraints to growth in this sector are not one sided. Australia's institutional investment industry is, by and large, preoccupied by short term wins and incentives that work against India's value proposition. Sustained improvements in India's ease of doing business, sovereign governance arrangements and in the India literacy of Australian companies and boards will help.

3.1 The policy and regulatory environment

India's financial services industry is heavily regulated by a range of authorities, many of which are averse to foreign debt and foreign players

• the RBI, SEBI, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority all have regulatory power in the sector
• extensive regulatory requirements for the formation of new companies in the banking, financial services and insurance sector have long posed a barrier to entry for prospective companies.

CASE STUDY: ANZ: Recognising India's Potential

Recognising the long term potential and growth of India's economy, ANZ opened a branch in Mumbai in 2011 and subsequently established branches in Gurugram and Bengaluru. Through these branches ANZ provides corporate banking services to institutional customers, both local and from offshore, that allow them to conduct financial transactions across the region, and into Europe and the United States.

ANZ services include Indian Rupee and foreign currency working capital and term financing, transaction banking, foreign exchange and interest rate solutions, offshore debt capital markets and deposits.

With its local knowledge and global expertise, ANZ India aims to help clients achieve the results they want from the movement of their capital and goods across the region. It provides services to customers in the resources, energy, agriculture, financial institutions and technology sectors. As well as its branch based operations, ANZ has a shared services hub in Bengaluru supporting its businesses across Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

ANZ also provides financial and volunteering support to non-government organisations and charities in India. ANZ's flagship adult financial education program, MoneyMinded, is delivered in Mumbai and Bengaluru where it continues to help hundreds of participants improve their financial skills, knowledge and confidence.

Women participating in the ANZ MoneyMinded program to build their money management skills, knowledge and confidence' [Robert Lomdalh, ANZ]

The complex regulatory environment particularly impinges on India's emerging fintech sector

• new regulatory hurdles, such as protocols around 'know your customer' and anti-money laundering, as well as digital identity authentication and data storage requirements, slow the adoption of new technologies.

Like their global peers, Indian regulators are still figuring out how to recalibrate to innovative disruptions

• the treatment of new business models enabled by fintech, including peer-to-peer transactions, crypto-currencies, crowd funding, systems integrity and data security are the biggest grey areas
• the lack of a regulatory framework makes significant investment in fintech a risk for Australian businesses.

The Future Fund, Australia's biggest institutional investor in India, has also suffered from a lack of regulatory clarity

• SEBI's 2012 'clubbing' rule, which brings the Future Fund and a range of state government funds under the same banner, effectively limits Future Fund holdings to 2.5 per cent of any listed entity, whereas a single foreign portfolio investor would be able to hold 10 per cent. xxix

India has made notable recent progress in reducing FDI caps in some sectors

• in 2015, the FDI limit on pensions and insurance increased from 26 per cent to 49 per cent
• in 2016, the limit in 'other financial services' category, which includes fintech and asset management, increased to 100 per cent
• India will need to go much further in opening up the financial services sector to foreign investment if it wants to increase capital inflows and accelerate adoption of world-leading technology and practices in these sectors.

Opportunities in the retail banking sector are curtailed by the dominance of public sector banks and the prevalence of many local private sector banks

• some foreign banks have succeeded in India but many have exited, including Australian banks
• India would need to secure investment from big name firms in Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the Indo-Pacific for significant opportunities to emerge for Australian firms in India's retail banking sector.

3.2 Skills, infrastructure and other constraints

The financial inclusion needs of India's rural poor are unlikely to be met by Australian firms

• this cohort will be serviced almost entirely by domestic financial institutions
• the reach of private and foreign banks into rural areas and financial inclusion is very low
• of the total distribution of credit from all private sector banks in India in 2017, only 2.39 per cent was distributed to rural areas; for foreign banks that figure was 0.35 per cent.

There are also constraints on the Australian side, such as benchmark-led management and shareholder expectations which can favour shorter term thinking in the institutional investment sector

• the culture of quarterly reporting constrains firms from investing in emerging markets such as India, where bouts of heightened volatility make members and boards nervous around performance.

4.0 Where to focus

Unlike many other industries, the financial services market in India is a national market in which businesses do not have to rely upon the business conditions set by state governments. Nevertheless, India does have well-formed financial services and fintech clusters. These cities should be the entry point for Australian companies seeking to establish a presence in the market. In the medium term, Indian cities with the greatest unmet demand for capital and insurance are unlikely to offer the best prospects for the types of financial services in which Australia specialises. Australian efforts should also focus on the Central Government to bridge knowledge and expectation gaps and share regulatory expertise.

Much like other parts of the world, India's financial services sector has a high spatial concentration in one city – Mumbai

• the city is India's financial and corporate capital, housing the headquarters of regulators, including SEBI and the RBI
• by extension, the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, is the most relevant for Australian financial services firms seeking to establish a presence in India.

The clustering of IT firms in Hyderabad (Telangana) and start-up culture in Bengaluru (Karnataka) has led to the emergence of a strong fintech ecosystem in both cities

• Telangana is also home to T-Hub, India's largest start-up incubator.

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are key states for fintech partnerships given the development of a fintech hub in each state and the existence of a strong IT and fintech ecosystem respectively.

Recognising its wide-ranging potential to modernise the economy, New Delhi, Kerala and Rajasthan are committing to develop blockchain specialisation hubs.

• ASIC has several cooperation agreements in place, including with China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Canada, United Kingdom, Indonesia and Switzerland – India should be added to this list of countries
• this can include dedicated contacts in each regulator and support prior to and during the authorisation process.
• ASIC's Innovation Hub already performs this function and could help SEBI set up a similar platform.
• financial services and fintech should be a key sector for a landing pad in Bengaluru [ see Recommendation 70.2 ]
• this would provide an opportunity for Australian fintech start-ups to travel to India (or vice versa) to access an incubator or accelerator
• start-ups could use the exchange to explore investment/partnerships in fintech or work bilaterally on a project to create a market solution that supported India's financial services needs.
• Australia and India could develop a bilateral innovation challenge for Indian and Australian fintech start-ups to provide solutions to developmental issues in the Indo-Pacific.
• 59.5 Increase the number of Indian and Australian fintech firms under the New Colombo Plan Internship and Mentorship Network.
• India is one of the 33 full members of this Committee
• we should share experiences on the testing and regulation of blockchain technologies, increase regular intersessional work and conduct more frequent agency to agency contact and teleconferences.
• the two countries could work together to increase consistency in terminology and measures for managing privacy, security and identity issues for near term uses in digital currencies, trade finance and remittances.
• SEBI's newly formed Committee on Financial and Regulatory Technologies is in the research phase of considering blockchain applicability to the stock market
• this could also lead to connecting Australian fintechs servicing the ASX to the NSE and BSE, and their supporting start-up ecosystem.
• this is an opportunity to leverage the 'soft power' of the Future Fund to share its experience of the challenges and rewards of the investment environment in India.
• regular policy dialogues between Treasury, Ministry of Finance and NITI Aayog present one opportunity for this to be done at an officials' level.
• currently only APEC members have joined – Australia, Japan, Thailand, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea
• membership of the ARFP from outside of APEC is possible under the rules of the ARFP
• consumers will benefit from a wider range of investment products and managers will benefit from market access into jurisdictions they could not previously operate in without a full local presence and licence
• fund managers in participating jurisdictions will be able to access the ARFP once they satisfy a number of threshold criteria, which will ensure only experienced managers with appropriate capital backing can enter.

The Australian Government should work with the Indian Government to develop India's retirement savings industry by sharing best practices and lessons from Australia

• broader policy issues relating to retirement savings could also be explored between Treasury and the Indian Ministry of Finance.
• xxviii It has been jointly published twice per year by Z/Yen Group in London and the China Development Institute in Shenzhen since 2015 and is widely quoted as a source for ranking financial centres. The ranking is an aggregate of indices from five key areas: 'business environment', 'financial sector development', 'infrastructure factors', 'human capital', 'reputation and general factors'.
• xxix The Future Fund has argued that the 'clubbing' rule should not apply to it as the Australian funds in question clearly meet SEBI's definition of no common management and no common beneficial ownership between funds.

CHAPTER nine Infrastructure Urban Development & Transport Infrastructure Sector

Chapter eleven sport sector.

“India is the world’s largest democracy,” reports (link resides outside ibm.com) the World Bank. “Over the past decade, the country’s integration into the global economy has been accompanied by economic growth. India has now emerged as a global player.”

For more than 200 years, State Bank of India (SBI) has been the country’s largest public sector bank, and its financial foundation. As many of the bank’s customers grew their wealth in recent years, the bank saw that people had new financial freedom and sought new opportunities. It also knew that this growth could empower India’s future as a global financial force.

But the key to that future is digital, especially now. “Digital financial inclusion was a development priority before the COVID-19 emergency; now, it is indispensable for both short-term relief and as a central element of broad-based, sustainable recovery efforts,” the World Bank reports (link resides outside ibm.com).

“In India, 60% of the population is less than 35 years old,” says Amit Saxena, Global Deputy Chief Technology Officer at SBI. And every day, he says, that population goes online to shop.

So, SBI formed a vision of something more than a digital bank—it envisioned a comprehensive online platform with four pillars: a digital bank for convenience, a financial superstore offering investments and other financial services, an online marketplace with lifestyle products from partners, and an overall digital transformation with analytics that connected these options end to end.

“We wanted a customer experience transformation, and we called it ‘YONO,’—‘You Only Need One,’ ” Saxena says. YONO would give the bank an enormous market advantage, combining services, products and features into one mobile app with a platform that could integrate data across third-party products and streamline the customer experience.

But first, the bank needed to do some work behind the screens—it needed to align several systems to support millions of screens.

The bank has 491 million customers. It has 260,000 employees; 22,500 worldwide branches administered by a headquarters; 17 local head offices; 101 zonal offices and 208 foreign offices in 36 countries. “Around 76 business units were part of the discussion when we started building YONO,” Saxena says.

“It was a humongous thing when we started—to try a digital transformation like this, for a legacy bank like us. I still get goosebumps when I think about the start.”

64 million App downloads

To truly create a mobile financial marketplace serving millions of customers, the bank needed a proven partner with exceptional capabilities.

“After a lot of consideration, we wanted to partner with IBM to get the benefit of the global expertise and the technology stack—we have used the latest and the best available from the treasury of IBM,” Saxena says. “We cannot bring in a partner who needs to learn on our project and from our understanding.”

With a focus on insights and expertise from real people, the IBM and SBI team brought together a comprehensive group of stakeholders, including client partners, IBM partners, agencies and consultants.

To go beyond banking and serve a range of customers with various intersecting needs, the bank applied the agile, user-focused  IBM Garage™  Methodology, working closely with IBM Garage designers, architects and analysts to collaborate on all aspects of the project. Stakeholders participated in an IBM Garage  Enterprise Design Thinking™  workshop that turned each customer path into a “journey.” Then the methodology quickly took the journey from strategy through design thinking, agile development and scaled delivery.

“The first day, you talk about what you want to achieve,” Saxena recalls. The next day, the team designed the solution, completing the UI/UX on Day 3. The team evaluated dependencies on Day 4, presented it on Day 5, received approval on Day 6 and finally built it on Day 7. “So, most of the Garages—apart from the complex journeys—would only take seven days.”

The IBM Garage journeys captured key banking tasks such as transferring funds, paying bills or taxes, and analyzing spending. Customers could even plan a “cardless ATM withdrawal”—YONO gave them a 1-time code that they could enter at an ATM to withdraw cash without using their card—perfect for giving family members cash, even if they live far away.

But the journeys also captured loan tasks such as applying for a home, car, school or agricultural loan. They captured financial service tasks such as purchasing insurance, mutual funds or securities, and other tasks for managing credit cards and checks. They even captured marketplace tasks such as shopping, filtering products and finding special deals for YONO users.

With such comprehensive data integration, the bank made the new system’s security a top priority. “Security was most important,” Saxena says. “And because we were embarking upon a new transformation journey around a new technology stack, that was a very big concern for us. Let me be very clear.”

As the bank developed customer journeys with IBM Garage, IBM also worked with SBI to design intelligent workflows and build a robust system of security and stability to support the solution. Intelligent workflows now apply technologies such as AI, automation, blockchain, 5G, advanced analytics and cloud to change the trajectory and very nature of SBI work, adding greater visibility, real-time insights and the power to remediate problems across multiple business functions.

To establish a proven security and data integration platform across dynamic systems, the bank selected the  IBM® DataPower® Gateway  solution. YONO data is hosted on scalable  IBM Cloudant®  distributed databases, and  IBM DataStage®  software handles data extracts, transfers and loads across multiple systems.

To help ensure that YONO can access enormous volumes of distributed data while delivering the performance customers expect, the bank taps into the  IBM Cloud® Application Performance Management  solution.

The final piece of YONO is dynamic data integration and analysis behind the scenes. That’s powered by the  IBM Cognos® Analytics  solution, with insights and pattern detection from  IBM SPSS® Statistics  software and analysis storage in a purpose-built  IBM Db2® Database . With these analytics, YONO helps SBI target customers with more effective and relevant offers.

But the true potential of YONO lies in people—not only the growing financial freedom of India’s population but the partners outside the bank who build new apps and capabilities on the YONO platform.  IBM WebSphere® Application Server  provides the core platform where developers can create, connect and optimize their apps, while  IBM FileNet® Content Manager  offers low-code tools for building the new cloud-based apps. To intuitively connect these apps in a security-rich environment, the  IBM API Connect®  solution provides purpose-built power to monetize APIs and it uses IBM App Connect with MQ for assured delivery.

When the infrastructure for YONO security and stability was ready, the IBM Garage team used an agile approach to deliver a minimum viable product (MVP) for the banking services pillar first—in a surprisingly short amount of time.

“We launched the digital bank mobile marketplace end to end in three months’ work,” Saxena says. “It would’ve been impossible to do this if we did not have the IBM Garage methodology.”

The team continued to iterate and scale its initial MVP. Because the IBM Garage focuses on user-centered design and SBI prioritizes the customer experience, the team spent weeks conducting user testing and incorporating user feedback.

Once the team released the full YONO marketplace of financial and consumer products, it was time to see the power of people bring the system to life. Ultimately, this intelligent platform empowers SBI employees to work smarter and deliver an exceptional customer experience.

People have responded.

The vision of YONO has connected with people throughout India and beyond, and a strong initial launch gathered even more power over time:  

• 100+ digital customer journeys implemented since the YONO launch, giving people a vast range of online banking, financial and consumer options
• More than 64 million YONO mobile app downloads, including 5.23 million downloads in the first five months
• More than nine million YONO logins per day
• More than 10 million cardless ATM withdrawals
• 650,000 mutual fund transactions through YONO
• More than seven million bank account openings through YONO
• 400,000 life insurance policies sold through YONO

“It’s such a pleasant experience for our customers,” Saxena says. “They met it with open arms.”

Plus, e-commerce partners have helped expand the YONO ecosystem of intuitive products and services further. More than 100 partners across 21 categories are developing important apps, services and YONO user discounts that fuel the mobile platform’s success. “To retain a customer, you have to keep them excited, keep them engaged and keep offering something new. So, that’s why YONO has been such a great product,” Saxena says.

The power of new financial options is part of why SBI continues to count on its alliance with IBM. “Every month, IBM helps us build new journeys for our customers, which helps keep them engaged,” Saxena says.

“We have a lot of partners,” he continues. “They have been a great support during this—but IBM is different from any of them. IBM has extended all the support that we have asked from them.” SBI has worked with IBM to redefine its business workflows and processes as it transitioned them into digital YONO experiences. New IBM Garage journeys are simpler because they build on existing information. And, as more processes moved into online journeys, the bank eliminated redundant steps and traditional paperwork.

The digital transformation at the foundation of YONO facilitated a strategic collaboration between SBI and IBM. As a strategic ally, IBM has offered data-driven expertise that uses advanced analytics to help drive billions of dollars in business value for YONO and the bank overall.

“Today, YONO has a valuation of USD 40 billion to USD 50 billion—and we have built that in three years’ time with the help of a partner like IBM,” Saxena says.

SBI (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a multinational public sector banking and financial services firm based in Mumbai, India. The bank was first formed as the Bank of Calcutta in 1806. Today, it has 491 million customers, 260,000 employees and 22,500 branches around the world, with an annual revenue of USD 52 billion. SBI includes subsidiaries that offer investment, credit card and life insurance products.

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2022. IBM Corporation, IBM Consulting, New Orchard Road, Armonk, NY 10504

Produced in the United States of America, March 2022.

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, API Connect, Cloudant, Cognos, DataPower, DataStage, Db2, Enterprise Design Thinking, FileNet, IBM Cloud, IBM Garage, SPSS, and WebSphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade .

The content in this document (including currency OR pricing references which exclude applicable taxes) is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates.

The performance data and client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating conditions. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided.

Statement of Good Security Practices: IT system security involves protecting systems and information through prevention, detection and response to improper access from within and outside your enterprise. Improper access can result in information being altered, destroyed, misappropriated or misused or can result in damage to or misuse of your systems, including for use in attacks on others. No IT system or product should be considered completely secure and no single product, service or security measure can be completely effective in preventing improper use or access. IBM systems, products and services are designed to be part of a lawful, comprehensive security approach, which will necessarily involve additional operational procedures, and may require other systems, products or services to be most effective. IBM DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY SYSTEMS, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES ARE IMMUNE FROM, OR WILL MAKE YOUR ENTERPRISE IMMUNE FROM, THE MALICIOUS OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF ANY PARTY.

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HDFC Bank Case Study 2021 – Industry, SWOT, Financials & Shareholding

by Jitendra Singh | Mar 4, 2021 | Case Study , Stocks | 1 comment

HDFC Bank Case Study and analysis 2021: In this article, we will look into the fundamentals of HDFC Bank, focusing on both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Here, we will perform the SWOT Analysis of HDFC Bank, Michael Porter’s 5 Force Analysis, followed by looking into HDFC Bank’s key financials. We hope you will find the HDFC Bank case study helpful.

Disclaimer: This article is only for informational purposes and should not be considered any kind of advisory/advice.  Please perform your independent analysis before investing in stocks, or take the help of your investment advisor. The data is collected from  Trade Brains Portal .

Table of Contents

About HDFC Bank and its Business Model

Incorporated in 1994, HDFC Bank is one of the earliest private sector banks to get approval from RBI in this segment. HDFC Bank has a pan India presence with over 5400+ banking outlets in 2800+ cities, having a wide base of more than 56 million customers and all its branches interlinked on an online real-time basis.

HDFC Limited is the promoter of the company, which was established in 1977. HDFC Bank came up with its 50 crore-IPO in March 1996, receiving 55 times subscription. Currently, HDFC Bank is the largest bank in India in terms of market capitalization (Nearly Rs 8.8 Lac Cr.). HDFC Securities and HDB Financial Services are the subsidiary companies of the bank.

HDFC Bank primarily provides the following services:

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• Retail Banking (Loan Products, Deposits, Insurance, Cards, Demat services, etc.)
• Wholesale Banking (Commercial Banking. Investment Banking, etc.)
• Treasury (Forex, Debt Securities, Asset Liability Management)

HDFC Bank Case Study – Industry Analysis

There are 12 PSU banks, 22 Private sector banks, 1485 urban cooperative banks, 56 regional rural banks, 46 foreign banks and 96,000 rural cooperative banks in India. The total number of ATMs in India has constantly seen a rise and there are 209,110 ATMs in India as of August 2020, which are expected to further grow to 407,000 by the end of 2021.

In the last four years, bank credit recorded a growth of 3.57% CAGR, surging to $1698.97 billion as of FY20. At the same time, deposits rose with a CAGR of 13.93% reaching $1.93trillion by FY20. However, the growth in total deposits to GDB has fallen to 7.9% in FY20 owing to pandemic crises, which was above 9% before it.

Due to strong economic activity and growth, rising salaries, and easier access to credit, the credit demand has surged resulting in the Credit to GDP ratio advancing to 56%. However, it is still far less than the developed economies of the world. Even in China, it is revolving around 150 to 200%.

As of FY20, India’s Retail lending to GDP ratio is 18% , whereas in developed economies (US, UK) it varies between 70% – 80%).

Michael Porter’s 5 Force Analysis of HDFC Bank

1. rivalry amongst competitors.

• The banking sector has evolved very rapidly in the past few years with technology coming in, and now it is not only limited to depositing and lending but various categories of loans and advances, digital services, insurance schemes, cards, broking services, etc.; hence, the banks face stiff competition from its rivals.

2. A Threat by Substitutes

• For services like mutual funds, investments, insurances, categorized loans, etc., banks are not the only option these days because a lot of niche players have put their foot in the specialized category, surging the threat by substitutes for the banks.
• Another threat for the traditional banks is NEO Banks. The  Neo Banks  are virtual banks that operate online, are completely digital, and have a minimum physical presence.

3. Barriers to Entry

• Banks run in a highly regulated sector. Strict regulatory norms, huge initial capital requirements and winning the trust of people make it very tough for new players to come out as a national level bank in India. However, if a company enters as a niche player, there are relatively fewer entry barriers.
• With RBI approving the functioning of new small finance banks, payment banks and entry of foreign banks, the competition has further intensified in the Indian banking sector.

4. Bargaining Power of Suppliers

• The only supply which banks need is capital and they have four sources for the capital supply viz. deposits from customers, mortgage securities, loans, and loans from financial institutions. Customer deposits enjoy higher bargaining power as it is totally dependent on income and availability of options.
• Financial Institutions need to hedge inflation, and banks are liable to the rules and regulations of the RBI which makes them a safer bet; hence, they have less bargaining power.

5. Bargaining Power of Customers

• In modern days, customers not only expect proper banking but also the quality and faster services. With the advent of digitalization and the entry of new private banks and foreign banks, the bargaining power of customers has increased a lot.
• In terms of lending, creditworthy borrowers enjoy a high level of bargaining power as there is a large availability of banks and NBFCs which are ready to offer attractive loans and services at low switching and other costs.

HDFC Bank Case Study – SWOT Analysis

Now, moving forward in our HDFC Bank case study, we will perform the SWOT analysis.

1. Strengths

• Currently, HDFC Bank is the leader in the retail loan segment (personal, car and home loans) and credit card business, increasing its market share each year
• The HDFC tag has become a sign of trust in the people as HDFC has come out as a pioneer not only in banking, but loans, insurances, mutual funds, AMC and brokerage.
• HDFC Bank has always been an institution of its words as it has, without fail, delivered its guidance and this has created a strong brand loyalty in the market for them.
• HDFC Bank has very well leveraged the technology to help its profitability, only 34% transaction via Internet Banking in 2010 to 95% transaction in 2020.

2. Weaknesses

• HDFC bank doesn’t have a significant rural presence as compared to its peers. Since its inception, it has focused mainly on high-end clients. However, the focus is shifting in the recent period as nearly 50% of its branches are now in semi-urban and rural areas.

3. Opportunities

• The average age of the Indian population is around 28 years and more than 65% of the population is below 35, with increasing disposable income and rising urbanization, the demand for retail loans is expected to increase. HDFC Bank, being a leader in retail lending, can make the best out of this opportunity.
• With modernization in farming and a rise in rural and semi-urban disposable income, consumer spending is expected to rise. HDFC Bank can increase its market share in these segments by grabbing this opportunity. Currently, the bank has only 21% of the branches in rural areas.
• A lot of niche players have set up their strong branches in respective segments, which has shown stiff competition and has shrined the market share and profit margin for the company. Example – Gold Loans, Mutual Funds , Brokerage, etc.
• In-Vehicle Financing (which is HDFC Bank’s major source of lending income), most of the leading vehicle companies are providing the same service, which is a threat to the bank’s business.

Asian Paints Case Study 2021 – Industry, SWOT, Financials & Shareholding

HDFC Bank’s Management

HDFC Bank has set high standards in corporate governance since its inception.

Right from sticking to their words to proper book writing, HDFC has never compromised with the banking standards, and all the credit goes to Mr. Aditya Puri, the man behind HDFC Bank, who took the bank to such great heights that today its market capitalization is more than that of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley of the US.

In 2020, after 26 years of service, he retired from his position in the bank and passed on the baton of Managing Director to Mr. Shasidhar Jagadishan. He joined the bank as a Manager in the finance function in 1996 and with an experience of over 29 years in banking, Jagadishan has led various segments of the sector in the past.

Financial Analysis of HDFC Bank

• 48% of the total revenue for HDFC bank comes from Retail Banking, followed by Wholesale Banking (27%), Treasury (12%), and 13% of the total comes from other sources.
• Industries receive a maximum share of loans issued by HDFC bank, which is 31.7%, followed by Personal Loans and Services both at a 28.7% share of the total. Only 10.9% of the total loans are issued to Agricultural and allied activities.
• HDFC Bank has a 31.3% market share in credit card transactions, showing a growth of 0.23% from the previous fiscal year, which makes it the market leader, followed by SBI.
• HDFC Bank is the market leader in large corporate Banking and Mid-Size Corporate Banking with 75% and 60% share respectively.
• In Mobile Banking Transaction, the market share of HDFC bank is 11.8%, which has seen a degrowth of 0.66% in the current fiscal year.
• With each year, HDFC Bank has shown increasing net profit, which makes the 1-year profit growth (24.57%) greater than both 3-year CAGR (21.75%) and 5-year CAGR (20.78%).
• Capital Adequacy Ratio, which is a very important figure for any bank stands at 18.52% for HDFC Bank.
• As of Sept 2020 HDFC, is at the second position in bank advances with a 10.1% market share, which has shown a rise from 9.25% a year ago. SBI tops this list with a 22.8% market share, Bank of Baroda is at the third spot with a 6.68% share, followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank (6.35%).
• HDFC Bank is again at the second spot in the market share of Bank deposits with 8.6%. SBI leads with a nearly 24.57% market share. PNB holds 7.5% of the market share in this category, coming out as the third followed by Bank of Baroda with 6.89%.

HDFC Bank Financial Ratios

1. profitability ratios.

• As of FY20, the net profit margin for the bank stands at 22.87%, which has seen a continuous rise for the last 4 fiscal years. This a very positive sign for the bank’s profitability.
• The Net Interest Margin (NIM) has been fluctuating from the range of 3.85% to 4.05% in the last 5 fiscal years. Currently, it stands at 3.82% as of FY20.
• Since FY16, there has been a constant fall in RoE, right from the high of 18.26% to 16.4% as of FY20.
• RoA has been more or less constant for the company, currently at 1.89%, which is a very positive sign.

2. Operational Ratios

• Gross NPA for the bank has fallen from FY19 (1.36) to 1.26, which a positive sign for the company. A similar improvement is also visible in the Net NPA, currently standing at 0.36.
• The CASA ratio for the bank is 42.23%, which has been seeing a continuous fall since FY17 (48.03%). However, there has been a spike rise in FY17 as in FY16, it was 43.25 and in FY18, again came to the almost same level of 43.5.
• In FY19, Advance Growth witnessed a massive spike from 18.71 level in FY18 rising to 24.47%. However, in FY20, it again fell nearly 4 points, coming down to 21.27%.

HDFC Bank Case Study – Shareholding Pattern

• Promoters hold 26% shares in the bank, which has been almost at the same level for the last many quarters. In the December quarter a years ago, the promoter holding was 26.18%. The marginal fall is only due to Aditya Puri retiring and selling few shares for his post-retirement finance, which he stated.
• FIIs own 39.95% shareholding in the bank, which has been increasing for years in every quarter. HDFC bank has been a darling share in the investor community.
• 21.70% of shares are owned by DIIs as of December Quarter 2020. Although it is less than the SeptQ2020(22.90%), it is still far above the year-ago quarter (21.07).
• Public holding in HDFC bank is 12.95% as of Dec Q2020, which has tanked from the year-ago quarter (14.83%) as FIIs increasing their share, which is evident from the rising share prices.

Closing Thoughts

In this article, we tried to perform a quick HDFC Bank   case study. Although there are still many other prospects to look into, however, this guide would have given you a basic idea about HDFC Bank.

What do you think about HDFC Bank fundamentals from the long-term investment point of view? Do let us know in the comment section below. Take care and happy investing!

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• Volume 14, Issue 5
• Protocol for process evaluation of ARTEMIS cluster randomised controlled trial: an intervention for management of depression and suicide among adolescents living in slums in India
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• http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6236-1317 Ankita Mukherjee 1 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0329-7271 Sandhya Kanaka Yatirajula 1 ,
• Sudha Kallakuri 2 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9005-2810 Srilatha Paslawar 2 ,
• Heidi Lempp 3 ,
• Usha Raman 4 ,
• Ashok Kumar 5 ,
• Beverley M Essue 6 ,
• Rajesh Sagar 7 ,
• Renu Singh 8 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6898-3870 David Peiris 9 , 10 ,
• Robyn Norton 9 , 11 ,
• Graham Thornicroft 12 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6835-6175 Pallab Kumar Maulik 1 , 10
• 1 The George Institute for Global Health India , New Delhi , India
• 2 The George Institute for Global Health , Hyderabad , India
• 3 Inflammation Biology , King’s College London , London , UK
• 4 Department of Communication , University of Hyderabad , Hyderabad , India
• 5 Dr.A.V. Baliga Memorial Trust , New Delhi , India
• 6 Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation , University of Toronto , Toronto , Ontario , Canada
• 7 Department of Psychiatry , All India Institute of Medical Sciences , New Delhi , India
• 8 Young Lives, India , New Delhi , India
• 9 The George Institute for Global Health , Sydney , New South Wales , Australia
• 10 University of New South Wales , Sydney , New South Wales , Australia
• 11 Imperial College London , London , UK
• 12 Centre for Global Mental Health and Centre for Implementation Science , Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London , London , UK
• Correspondence to Dr Pallab Kumar Maulik; pmaulik{at}georgeinstitute.org.in

Introduction There are around 250 million adolescents (10–19 years) in India. The prevalence of mental health-related morbidity among adolescents in India is approximately 7.3%. Vulnerable subpopulations among adolescents such as those living in slum communities are particularly at risk due to poor living conditions, financial difficulty and limited access to support services. Adolescents’ Resilience and Treatment nEeds for Mental Health in Indian Slums (ARTEMIS) is a cluster randomised controlled trial of an intervention that intends to improve the mental health of adolescents living in slum communities in India. The aim of this paper is to describe the process evaluation protocol for ARTEMIS trial. The process evaluation will help to explain the intervention outcomes and understand how and why the intervention worked or did not work. It will identify contextual factors, intervention barriers and facilitators and the adaptations required for optimising implementation.

Methods Case study method will be used and the data will include a mix of quantitative metrics and qualitative data. The UK Medical Research Council’s guidance on evaluating complex interventions, the Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance Framework and the Affordability, Practicability, Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, Acceptability, Safety/Side Effects and, Equity criteria will be used to develop a conceptual framework and a priori codes for qualitative data analysis. Quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive statistics. Implementation fidelity will also be measured.

Discussion The process evaluation will provide an understanding of outcomes and causal mechanisms that influenced any change in trial outcomes.

Ethics and dissemination Ethics Committee of the George Institute for Global Health India (project number 17/2020) and the Research Governance and Integrity Team, Imperial College, London (ICREC reference number: 22IC7718) have provided ethics approval. The Health Ministry’s Screening Committee has approved to the study (ID 2020-9770).

Trial registration number CTRI/2022/02/040307.

• Adolescents
• Protocols & guidelines
• Implementation Science
• MENTAL HEALTH
• Clinical Trial
• Depression & mood disorders

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-081844

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STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY

This study will use existing implementation science theories and frameworks and qualitative and quantitative data will be triangulated to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the intervention.

This study will be guided by the Medical Research Council framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions and the case study method will also be used.

Cases will be purposively selected based on maximum variation approach. Both intervention and control sites will be selected as cases to the enable comparison, to understand contextual factors and to avoid the Hawthorne effect.

Introduction

India has about 250 million adolescents aged 10–19 years, comprising nearly one-fifth of India’s population. 1 The burden of mental health problems in adolescents is a growing concern globally. 2 In India, the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among adolescents is estimated to be about 7.3%. 3 Self-harm and depressive disorders are the leading cause of death and disability in the age group 15–19 years. 4

Mental health interventions for adolescents are important as 50% of adult mental disorders have an onset before the age of 14 years. 5 Marginalised populations, such as adolescents living in slum communities, are particularly vulnerable because of additional stressors related to poor living conditions, financial stress and poor access to support services. 6 7

There has been limited research to test community-based mental health interventions for adolescents living in slums in India. A scoping review of mental health interventions among adolescents in India found that of the 11 interventions included in the review, 9 were school based, 1 community based and 1 was digital. 8 Most of the school-based programmes used a life skills curriculum that resulted in improvements in depressive symptoms and overall mental well-being. The review recommended the need for more interventions for early and out-of-school adolescents to ensure that the most vulnerable adolescents were not missed out. An intervention to build mental health and resilience delivered by community-based peers among highly disadvantaged young women living in urban slums in Dehradun, a city in north India, showed sustained improvements in anxiety and depression and attitudes to gender equality among study participants. 9 A randomised controlled trial of a 5-month resilience-based programme among rural adolescent girls through government schools in the state of Bihar, India, delivered by local women showed that girls receiving the intervention (vs controls) had better emotional resilience, self-efficacy, social-emotional assets, psychological well-being and social well-being. 10 Another school-based pilot study of of POD (Problems, Options, Do it), titled Adventures (a smartphone-based blended problem-solving game-based intervention for adolescents with or at risk of anxiety, depression and conduct difficulties) was helpful in managing their problems and stress and improving the mental health of 13–19 years enrolled in secondary schools in the Indian state of Goa. 11 The Adolescents’ Resilience and Treatment nEeds for Mental Health in Indian Slums (ARTEMIS) cluster randomised control trial (cRCT) is testing a community-based intervention to improve the mental health outcomes for adolescents living in urban slum clusters in India.

This paper presents the protocol for process evaluation of the ARTEMIS cRCT. ARTEMIS is a community-based cluster randomised control trial that aims to reduce depression and the risk of suicide among adolescents living in slums. The intervention will use a mental health stigma reduction campaign with adolescents and parents of the study cohort to improve attitudes towards mental health and improve help seeking. A technology-enabled strategy will be employed for screening, clinical diagnosis and management of mental health problems (depression, other significant emotional or medically unexplained complaints and suicide risk) among adolescents by primary care doctors and community-based non-physician health workers (NPHWs) (described in detail below).

Process evaluations provide critical inputs in understanding how interventions work in particular contexts and thus, support implementation planning beyond the trial setting. 12

The aims of the process evaluation are to:

Assess implementation fidelity and understand how the intervention was implemented.

Identify key contextual factors that impact intervention delivery and outcomes.

Understand perceptions of different stakeholders about effectiveness, acceptability and scalability of intervention components.

Identify key facilitators and barriers in implementation of the intervention.

Explain any adaptations to the intervention or intervention refinement during the study and their possible impact on the outcomes.

Conceptual framework

The process evaluation will be guided by the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions. 13 14 The framework highlights the importance of examining the implementation, the mechanism of impact and their interaction with contextual factors to better understand how and why an intervention does or does not work. A recent update to the framework recognises that complex interventions have several phases including intervention development, feasibility assessment, implementation and evaluation, which may not always be sequential. 15 It recommends six core areas of inquiry at each phase before moving on to the next phase. They include (1) the intervention and its interaction with context; (2) the programme theory; (3) ways of engaging with diverse stakeholders; (4) ways of intervention refinement; (5) identifying key uncertainties and (6) economic considerations. The process evaluation will focus on the first five areas of inquiry, and the overall objectives have been framed to address these key areas.

Study setting

The ARTEMIS cRCT will be implemented in 60 slum clusters across two cities New Delhi and Vijayawada in India. In each city, 30 slum clusters will be included. For this study, a slum cluster is defined as slums within wards or geographical areas identified as slums/resettlement colonies. A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In certain cities of India, such as Mumbai and New Delhi, a ward is an administrative unit of the city region; a city area is divided into zones, which in turn contains numerous wards. New Delhi is a metropolis and one of the largest cities in India with a population of about 17 million and an estimated slum population of about 2 million. 16 17 Vijayawada is one of the largest cities in the state of Andhra Pradesh with an urban population of over 1.0 million 18 19 and an estimated slum population is estimated to be about 0.5 million. 17 The most widely spoken language in Delhi is Hindi while in Vijayawada it is Telugu.

Patient and public involvement

Adolescent Expert Advisory Groups (AEAGs) have been formed at each site. This group was involved throughout the intervention development phase in providing inputs and suggestions. Their contributions were critical for the cocreation of the anti-stigma content for adolescents. During the formative phase, 34 meetings were held where the AEAG provided valuable feedback on ways to engage adolescents in the anti-stigma campaign.

Study design

The study will use a mixed-method, multiple case study design. Each slum cluster will constitute a ‘case’ for the study. A total of six cases or clusters will be purposively selected taking a maximum variation approach. Slums will be purposively selected to represent different contexts, coverage and reach of intervention as well as the ease or difficulty of implementing the intervention.

Intervention description

The ARTEMIS cRCT will test an intervention to address depression, increased risk of self-harm/suicide or other significant emotional or medically unexplained complaints among adolescents living in urban slums in two cities in India. ARTEMIS has two components. The first is a campaign that aims to reduce stigma related to mental health and improve attitudes and behaviours towards adolescents with depression or at increased risk of self-harm/suicide. The second is a technology-enabled mHealth platform with an integrated electronic decision support system (EDSS), to help primary care doctors and NPHWs to diagnose and treat adolescents at high risk of depression, self-harm or suicide.

Before randomisation and the start of the intervention, a team of trained field investigators will screen adolescents at high risk of depression or suicide using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), which is a standardised psychometric tool for screening depression and suicide risk in the community. 20 21 Adolescents who obtain a PHQ 9 score of ≥10 and/or a score of ≥2 in the suicide risk question on the PHQ-9 will be deemed as ‘high risk’. Due to the time delay between screening and randomisation and potential natural remission, a second screening will be carried out for adolescents identified as ‘high risk’ before the baseline is administered. This process will help identify the final list of adolescents at ‘high risk’ in all the clusters. The following information will be collected from the study cohort by the trained field investigators: sociodemographic characteristics, history of mental illness, treatment history, comorbid conditions, stressful events experienced in the previous year, resilience, knowledge attitude and behaviours related to mental health and stigma associated with help seeking. A detailed protocol of the trial has been published. 22

A theory of change model for the intervention was developed with key stakeholders during the formative phase of the study in 2021. The logic model for intervention has been provided ( figure 1 ).

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Logic model for ARTEMIS. IEC, Information Education,Communication; IT, Information Technology; ASHAs, Accredited Social Health Activists.

Intervention arm

In the intervention arm, the two components (1) the anti-stigma campaign and (2) the technology-enabled mHealth-based EDSS for screening, diagnosis and management of depression and self-harm will be delivered. ( figure 1 ).

Anti-stigma campaign

The anti-stigma campaign will include several Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials containing key messages around addressing mental health stigma, myths related to mental health, highlighting major stressors and their impact on mental health of adolescents and the importance of help seeking for mental health problems. The IEC materials will include posters, pamphlets, brochures, videos of persons with lived experience, animation videos, audio dramas, games, magic shows, rallies and street plays. The materials will be cocreated with adolescents from the study sites. AEAGs will be created in both locations consisting of adolescents from the community, with the purpose of involving them in working with the implementation team to cocreate the anti-stigma campaign. Details of the process of forming AEAGs and their engagement in shaping the anti-stigma campaign have been published elsewhere. 23

Peer-educators

Based on findings from the formative phase of the study, peer groups were established comprising adolescents from the community in the age group 13–19 years, some of whom were from the study cohort. Their role will be to provide support to adolescents who approach them to discuss problems and to promote mental health awareness in the community. All the members of the peer groups will be provided basic training by the research team on mental health, safe practices while using social media, addiction and substance use and promoting mental well-being through engaging in pleasurable activities such as listening to music, sharing problems with trusted individuals, having friends, exercising and eating healthily.

Technology-enabled EDSS

The EDSS platform has been developed to assist primary care doctors and NPHWs to screen, diagnose and manage depression, other significant emotional or medically unexplained complaints and suicide risk among adolescents. High-risk adolescents will be referred to the doctor electronically via the mHealth platform by the NPHWs. In each cluster, one doctor and several NPHWs will be trained. The NPHWs will be trained to use the EDSS to provide basic supportive advice to adolescents at high risk of depression or self-harm, refer them to the primary care doctors, and track treatment advice given by the doctors and will follow-up on treatment adherence. The NPHWs will make regular home visits to encourage adolescents at high risk and their families to seek help from the doctor. The NPHWs will also use the EDSS to clinically monitor the severity of high-risk individuals at 4 months and at 10 months after the start of the intervention. High-risk individuals will be provided referral cards to take to the primary care doctors. The primary care doctors will be trained to use an EDSS to clinically diagnose and manage adolescents with depression, other significant emotional or medically unexplained complaints and self-harm/suicide ideation based on WHO’s mhGAP (Mental Health Gap Action Programme)-Intervention Guide algorithm. 24 Adolescents needing specialist care will be referred to a psychiatrist in a government facility. The EDSS will also capture and store (on a cloud server) information regarding adolescents’ visits and the type of care provided by the primary care doctor—counselling/pharmacotherapy/combination of both/referral/follow-up. All data will be encrypted and protected using user-defined passwords. The information will be visible to the NPHWs, the project supervisors and research team only. A colour-coded traffic light system integrated in the application will assist the NPHWs to identify high-risk adolescents who need to be prioritised for follow-up. The EDSS will also provide them with simple questions tailored to the priority level as indicated by the traffic-light coding system, that they can ask the adolescents during follow-up to ensure appropriate treatment adherence or follow-up with doctors or mental health specialists.

Control arm

The control arm will receive enhanced usual care that will include general psychoeducation through pamphlets to raise awareness of common mental disorders in adolescents among the wider community. Parents/guardians of adolescents identified as high risk will be advised to consult a primary care doctor or mental health professional. Those with high scores on PHQ-9 (a score of ≥15 on PHQ9) and/or at high risk of suicide (suicide score ≥2), indicating severe depression and/or high risk of suicide will be asked to seek care immediately and will be given a list of health facilities (with contact details) where such treatment is available. All NPHWs will be asked to follow up with the adolescents and their families more intensively and will recommend that they visit a doctor/psychiatrist immediately.

Data collection

Quantitative data for the process evaluation will draw on metrics collected and sourced from the open-source medical record system or OpenMRS; ( OpenMRS.org ). The OpenMRS is a standardised community-driven open-source software for storing and processing medical record information. Quantitative data will be collected throughout the intervention via the mHealth platform. This will include data on screening outcome, treatment seeking, follow-ups and treatment provided for the high-risk cohort. Data will also be used to understand usage patterns of the EDSS by primary care doctors and NPHWs. The mHealth platform will capture this data in tablets used by NPHWs and primary care doctors for screening, treatment and follow-up of the high-risk cohort. These data will be used to assess reach, effectiveness and service utilisation. Data on competency and fidelity measures will also be captured throughout the intervention.

Qualitative data collection will include key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) with various stakeholders including high-risk and non-high-risk cohorts in both arms, parents, primary care doctors, NPHWs, members of the AEAG and peer leaders. A total of 33 FGDs (each with 6–12 participants) and 28 interviews are planned across the 6 purposively selected slum clusters equally divided between both sites. This will include four intervention clusters (two each in Delhi and Vijayawada) and two control clusters (one each in Delhi Vijayawada) ( table 1 ). The KIIs and FGDs with stakeholders will help capture information related to fidelity of the intervention and identify any gaps that could be addressed. Written informed consent will be sought from all participants selected for KIIs and FGDs.

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Qualitative data collection plan

Data analysis

The conceptual framework for the study and how it integrates with the key parameters from the MRC frameworks is provided in table 2 .

Conceptual Framework for Process Evaluation

The case study methodology will also be used as it is recognised to be suitable to study complex interventions in different contexts and helps to capture ‘the complexity of the case, the relationship between the intervention and the context and how the intervention worked (or did not)’. 25 Following Pfadenhauer et al , we define context as ‘a set of characteristics and circumstances that consist of active and unique factors that surround the implementation. As such it is not a backdrop for implementation but interacts, influences, modifies and facilitates or constrains the intervention and its implementation’. 26 We will be selecting both intervention and control sites as cases to avoid the Hawthorne effect. Two slum cluster in the control arm will also be selected for the case study to enable comparison, to understand contextual factors and any changes to usual care in the absence of an intervention. The importance of studying changes in control arms has been recognised as being useful in understanding intervention impact. 27 A multiple case study design will be used where each case will be analysed at the case level, but we will also pull together all the cases from the intervention and control arms for a more in-depth analysis and comparison. Basic descriptive analysis will be conducted with the quantitative data. Qualitative data will be transcribed by a professional vendor and the transcripts will be read by at least two members of the research team and coded. Coding will be carried out using a priori codes based on the conceptual framework ( table 3 ) with the help of NVivo 12 software.

Data Sources and Areas of Inquiry for Qualitative Data Collection

Any additional codes emerging during the analysis will be added to the coding framework. Members of the research team will read transcripts separately and come up with codes. The research team will then compare and combine their codes to evaluate their fit and usefulness and will examine the differences in code to see if any new insights can be generated. The code list will be finalised after a discussion between the researchers to establish agreement among coders. Qualitative and quantitative data will be triangulated to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the intervention. Triangulation helps in confirming the findings from quantitative and qualitative data thereby increasing validity as well as leading to a better understanding of phenomena being studied. 28

The quantitative data will be used understand implementation outcomes. Indicators to study implementation outcomes will be informed by the conceptual framework and relevant implementation science theories and frameworks ( table 2 ). These include the RE-AIM 29 (Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance) framework and the APEASE (Affordability, Practicability, Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, Acceptability, Safety/Side Effects and, Equity) criteria for evaluation of behaviour change interventions. 30–32 The APEASE criteria have some similarities with RE-AIM but includes two additional parameters, which are- practicability and safety. An intervention is practicable if ‘it can be delivered as designed through the means intended to the target population’. 30 Data will be extracted from OpenMRS and descriptive statistics will be used to get totals, proportions and changes over time.

Assessment of implementation fidelity

Implementation fidelity refers to the extent to which an intervention was implemented as intended. We will assess fidelity in three components, such as (a) delivery of anti-stigma campaign, (b) implementation of the mHealth component and (3) trainings. Indicators have been developed for all these components to measure the frequency of exposure and coverage. The quality of training provided to primary doctors on the mhGAP, NPHWs on the priority listing app and peer educators on promoting mental well-being and competency will be assessed through various tools including a post-training satisfaction survey, pre–post test self-assessment checklists as well as though rating by trainers and staff on competency checklists.

This paper describes the design of a mixed-method process evaluation for the ARTEMIS cRCT, which involves an anti-stigma campaign and a mobile device-based decision support system for primary care doctors and NPHWs, to improve treatment of adolescents at high risk of depression, other significant emotional or medically unexplained complaints and suicide risk.

The process evaluation will help us understand and explain key causal mechanisms that led to change and will, therefore, strengthen the understanding of the implementation process by highlighting various barriers and facilitators. Furthermore, it will provide an understanding of how the local context played a role in the way the intervention was implemented and help identify the need and impact of any adaptations made to the intervention. The process evaluation will provide stakeholder perspectives on aspects of the intervention that worked and those that need further adaptation.

Strengths and limitations

The protocol was developed using existing implementation science theories and frameworks and combines qualitative and quantitative measures to understand key aspects of how the intervention was implemented and which aspects worked or need further improvement. The MRC framework, which is a comprehensive framework, widely used in the field of implementation science will be used. The case study method using a maximum variation approach will be used to make suitable comparisons among different contexts and avoid Hawthorne. The ARTEMIS intervention does not directly address social determinants which impact mental health outcomes. In this study, we will collect additional qualitative and quantitative data on social support, socioeconomic conditions, education and the local context of participants which will help to better understand and explain linkages between mental health outcomes and social determinants.

Ethics and dissemination

The study received formal ethics approval from the Ethics Committee of the George Institute for Global Health India on 4 September 2020 (project number 17/2020). The study also received formal ethics approval from the Research Governance and Integrity Team, Imperial College, London on 8 June 2022 (ICREC reference number: 22IC7718). The Health Ministry’s Screening Committee and Indian Council for Medical Research have also provided approval to the project (ID 2020-9770). Findings will be disseminated to study participants and other stakeholders at a policy symposium. All identifiable personal data will be stored in password-protected secured servers located at The George Institute for Global, India office in Hyderabad. Only deidentified data will be disseminated. Data will be available with the Principal Investigator (PI) on an accessible data repository, which can be accessed by other researchers, subject to a formal request to the PI to access the data for research purposes.

Trial status

At the time of writing the paper, the intervention had started in both sites. Randomisation was executed in Vijayawada and in Delhi on 12 December 2022. Intervention components were implemented in both the sites.

Ethics statements

Patient consent for publication.

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the contribution of all members of the Adolescent Expert Advisory Group in Delhi and Vijayawada who have generously contributed their time and expertise to the development of ARTEMIS. GT is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration South London (NIHR ARC South London) at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

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X @DrSrilatha_p, @No

Contributors The paper was conceptualised by PKM. AM wrote the original draft with contributions from SKY. PKM commented on multiple drafts before sending a prefinal version to everyone listed as authors. SK, SP, HL, UR, BME, RaS, ReS, DP, RN and GT reviewed the draft and provided critical intellectual inputs and comments to the draft. PKM led the implementation of the trial in India along with SKY, SK, SP and AM. SKY, SK and SP played a key role in implementing research activities in the sites. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding Adolescents’ Resilience and Treatment nEeds for Mental health in Indian Slums (ARTEMIS) is funded by UK Research and Innovation/Medical Research Council (UKRI/MRC), Grant no: MR/S023224/1. SKY, SK and SP are all partially or fully supported by ARTEMIS. PKM and AM are partially supported through NHMRC/GACD grant (SMART MentalHealth-APP1143911) and ARTEMIS. PKM is the PI for ARTEMIS and Co-PI for SMART Mental Health. HL and GT are partly support by ARTEMIS. GT is also supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration South London at King’s College London. GT is also supported by the MRC-UKRI in relation to the Indigo Partner­ship (MR/R023697/1) awards.

Disclaimer The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The funding agency had no role in the writing of the manuscript or the decision to submit it for publication.

Competing interests We declare that the George Institute for Global Health has a part-owned social enterprise, George Health Enterprises, which has commercial relationships involving digital health innovations.

Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research. Refer to the Methods section for further details.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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Urbanisation led to 60% more night-time warming in Indian cities: Report

According to the research, ahmedabad, jaipur and rajkot had the highest urban effect, while delhi-ncr and pune were found to be at the fourth and fifth position, respectively.

Asia’s contribution to global growth led by India in the coming years will be the largest. India’s growth will create a large migration to cities, requiring focus on urban development

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Jamshedpur model of urbanisation, mumbai, bengaluru in top 10 cities with highest home price rise in apac, cities: trapped in central planning, new cities from old cities, rapid warming of indian ocean could lead to catastrophic outcomes: study, sunday holidays linked to christians, one district tried to change it: modi, india announces financial aid of $1 mn for landslide-hit papua new guinea, 'quiet firing': how to identify the layoff tactic of companies in india, delhi court summons aap's atishi in defamation case over bjp poaching claim, 650 pilgrims fail to fulfill registration norms at badrinath, sent back.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: May 28 2024 | 4:54 PM IST

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