Featured in Times of India
Hyderabad: US-based consumer financial services player Synchrony has inked a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the University of Hyderabad UoH ) to fund India’s first disruptive blockchain project for providing financial services access to marginal farmers.
The three-year public-private partnership includes a grant from Synchrony to UoH for the project that will focus on leveraging blockchain technology to help lenders provide financial aid to farmers with no collateral and fixed assets.
The project will be headed by Prof Vijaya Bhaskar Marisetty , professor of finance, UoH, with Dr Varsha Mamidi , faculty member ( machine learning ), UoH, as co-investigator. It will build a financial services-based blockchain between a group of farmers in Tamil Nadu, a farmers produce organization SEEDS NGO and their primary lender Samunnati Financial Services, an agri-financing NBFC. NGO Nirmaan.org will coordinate the project. “Through our partnership, we are helping to push the technology boundaries to help farmers reach their financial goals. This grant can provide farmers access to blockchain technology and help them access the financial assistance they need to support their operations,” said Andy Ponneri, senior VP and business leader, Synchrony India.
UoH vice-chancellor Prof Appa Rao said such innovative models will help bridge the gap between industry and academic institutions. Synchrony said the primary objective is to explore how technology can reduce costs for marginal farmers who have no access to loans from formal channels of lending. The project will also use AI-based tools to project future cash flows of farmers. With better monitoring and more accurate cash flow predictions, the project hopes to improve the lenders’ trust and reduce borrowing costs for marginal farmers, it said.
