MSC works as a trusted advisor to several ministries of the Government of India. Together, we helped roll out the Aadhaar identification system. We assessed readiness for direct benefit transfers (DBT) in food, fertilizer, and fuel on both demand and supply sides. We helped design the technology infrastructure to enhance outreach and user experience for citizens utilizing who benefit from such transfer schemes. At the same time, we provided critical advisory services to the ministries to develop, test, and scale the digitization of flagship social safety payments. We supported the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and its banking partners with enhanced payment infrastructure outreach and usability.
Multilingual informative comic booklets on enhancing awareness and precautionary behavior among the staff members and clients of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and self-help groups during the COVID-19 pandemic
These comic books helped inform their frontline staff on workplace safety, safe cash handling, customer etiquette, and personal safety measures. MFIs and agents who serve 25 million-plus customers used MSC’s informative comic booklets to reduce infection and death across more than 15 countries across three continents. They were translated into English, Hindi, Bengali, French, and Arabic.
The work has been commissioned by MetLife Foundation.
- Access the global version with social distancing (1 meter) here.
- Access the English version (with group meeting) for Indian MFIs here.
- Access the English version (for individual meeting where group meeting is not permitted) for Indian MFIs here.
- Access the Hindi version (with group meeting) for Indian MFIs here.
- Access the Hindi version (for individual meeting where group meeting is not permitted) for Indian MFIs here.
- Access the Bangla version (with group meeting) for Indian MFIs here.
- Access the Bangla version (for individual meeting where group meeting is not permitted) for Indian MFIs here.
- Access the Bengali version for Bangladesh MFIs here.
- Access the English version for African MFIs here.
- Access the French version for African MFIs here.
Identifying ways to increase efficiency and improve service delivery of the world’s largest health insurance scheme
The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna or PM-JAY is the largest health insurance scheme in the world. PM-JAY intends to provide a health cover of USD 6,723 (INR 500,000) per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. The program expects to reach more than 107.4 million poor and vulnerable families or approximately 500 million beneficiaries who form the bottom 40% of the Indian population.
The program empanels government and private hospitals to perform medical procedures and surgeries to treat diseases and medical conditions on those covered by PM-JAY. Delays in settling claims by the State Health Authority (SHA) may lead to disenchantment among Empaneled Health Care Providers (EHCPs), leading them to lose confidence in the program. MSC conducted a study in Bihar, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh to assess the challenges that healthcare providers empaneled with the government faced in delivering health services.
The study found that delay in settling claims of these healthcare providers is a significant factor in the slow uptake of the PM-JAY scheme. MSC made some key recommendations, including a pilot for real-time claim adjudication (RTCA) to address delays in payments to impaneled health care providers.
Impact of COVID-19 on critical and essential healthcare services and the capacity of frontline healthcare workers
The COVID-19 pandemic has put the spotlight on India’s healthcare system and frontline healthcare workers. MSC undertook a study on the health system across the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Bihar to investigate how the public health system and its beneficiaries fared in the pandemic. The study focused on exploring critical challenges in the demand and supply of health services. These elements include community demand in the form of health-seeking behavior and access to healthcare; health service delivery in terms of provision of health services—human resource, infrastructure, and logistics; and community health workers—ASHAs.
The study highlighted gaps in the supply and demand sides of the healthcare delivery system. In particular, ASHA workers have long faced multiple challenges in executing their essential tasks. Our research indicates that the pandemic exacerbated these challenges. Such challenges impact more than 1 million ASHA workers as they deliver essential services to rural communities across the country. MSC recommended measures to strengthen the rural healthcare system in the post-pandemic world and ensure effective and timely delivery of health services—particularly to rural communities.
An ambitious project to create a model for delivery of health and other government welfare programs to improve nutrition and healthcare outcomes
The Government of India, through NITI Aayog, has launched a project to transform the Sevapuri block (sub-district administrative division) in Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, into a model block for the country. The project is significantly improving outcomes of various welfare programs in 87 villages, with a population of 234,000, through coordination and convergence. In this project, the central and state governments work together to improve key development outcomes.
MSC’s role is to develop a strategic plan for health and nutrition and converge the efforts of all development agencies working in Sevapuri. We collaborate with partners, such as JHPIEGO, India Health Action Trust (IHAT), and Project Concern International (PCI). We identified KPIs and defined a process to monitor and evaluate progress in several areas. So far, we have looked at immunization of children, screening for non-communicable diseases, the success rate of tuberculosis (TB) treatment among notified TB patients, and supplementary nutrition for women under the ICDS program, among others.
Piloting alternate delivery models for food security through direct cash transfers instead of in-kind ration, and its linkages with nutritional and health outcomes
The Government of India has been conducting pilots on alternate delivery mechanisms, including direct cash transfers. These pilots are expected to cut leakages, increase efficiency, and enable better targeting under the food security programs. MSC undertook a multidimensional assessment in 2019 to explore the impact of cash transfer on nutritional and health outcomes in the target populations.
About 245,000 households across three union territories in India have been receiving cash transfer benefits since 2015. The study revealed that the beneficiaries find the subsidy amount insufficient as rations purchased with the subsidy lasted for only two weeks. In contrast, the rations under the prior in-kind distribution system lasted three weeks. Moreover, the cash transfers had a negligible effect on the dietary diversity and quantity of food consumed due to a lack of nutritional literacy. The study also found that, typically, beneficiaries spent the cash subsidy on non-food expenses. The study was instrumental in identifying levers that can improve the design of cash transfer programs to improve nutritional outcomes across vulnerable communities.