DBS Foundation Collaborates with Haqdarshak to Grow Financial Literacy Programme with SGD 5.1 Million in Funding

India, 04 Feb 2025 - DBS Foundation, in partnership with Haqdarshak Empowerment Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (HESPL), has announced a new programme designed to help advance financial inclusion, with a focus on rural India. The programme is part of DBS Bank's larger commitment, announced in 2023, to allocate SGD 1 billion over the next decade to improve the lives and livelihoods of low-income and underprivileged individuals. The DBS Foundation will provide SGD 5.1 million to fund the programme, which has targeted impacting 500,000 beneficiaries in totality across the country.

India’s rural population can often face challenges such as lack of information about and access to financial services and social welfare entitlements. The DBS-funded programme addresses these critical gaps by providing resources to help this demographic understand financial concepts and products as well as the tools and assistance on how to access social welfare schemes, supported by Haqdarshak’s team of agents. The programme implementation will focus on rural regions in the states of Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha.

As part of the programme, dedicated field teams, including Haqdarshak’s female agents, will be deployed to conduct both digital and financial literacy training sessions along with entitlement screening sessions. The programme will prioritise enrolling eligible beneficiaries, particularly women, the elderly, and nano entrepreneurs like street vendors and tradesmen, into appropriate social welfare schemes. Additionally, to bolster their protection against financial fraud, participants will receive anti-scam awareness trainings. Enhancing the effectiveness of these services, the Haqdarshak Yojana Card, a QR coded card will facilitate easy access to the beneficiary’s social entitlement profiles online with periodic information updates on scheme eligibility. DBS employees will actively participate in the programme delivery under its staff volunteer movement ‘People of Purpose’ to increase content awareness as well as conduct community sessions along with the Haqdarshak team.

Azmat Habibulla, Managing Director and Head - Group Strategic Marketing and Communications, DBS Bank India, said, "Since inception more than a decade ago, the DBS Foundation has been focused on uplifting lives and livelihoods and, it is especially meaningful to be able to launch a new intervention with Haqdarshak, who we have nurtured since 2018 as a Business For Impact. Having completed three decades in India, DBS Bank is more committed than ever to stay true to its purpose-driven vision and catalyse change. Together with Haqdarshak, we will take forward this shared mission to go beyond banking and empower communities through financial inclusion. By tackling real knowledge gaps with targeted solutions, we can enable pathways out of poverty and create lasting impact to help build a better world for generations to come.” 

Over the years, Haqdarshak has been engaging with and been supported by the DBS Foundation (DBSF), including via the 2018 DBSF Business for Impact Grant and the 2020 DBSF Business Transformation Improvement Grant. In 2023 Haqdarshak became a DBSF programme partner in India to foster digital and financial literacy among citizens from vulnerable communities across Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. Through this initiative over 10,000 digital and financial literacy sessions were successfully conducted for over 2 lakh beneficiaries, along with entitlement screening and facilitation support to over 4 lakh individuals so they could avail relevant welfare schemes. Notably, around 90% of the participants trained in digital and financial literacy were women.

Commenting on the announcement, Aniket Doegar, Co-Founder and CEO of Haqdarshak, said "As we navigate an increasingly fast-paced world, it is important to support those who may need more assistance and ensure that no one is left behind. Our new programme is aimed at fostering long-term economic resilience and self-sufficiency among underprivileged communities by giving them the skills and confidence to access the benefits of the formal system. The DBS Foundation has been instrumental as a trusted partner in our journey and their consistent support over the years has enabled us to scale our reach and impact more lives positively. We look forward to partnering once again on a very purposeful initiative, bringing about real impact by sparking collective action."

This programme is part of the DBS Foundation’s broader objective to support vulnerable communities and enable them to gain financial resilience across Asia, with a specific focus on the underprivileged and ageing members of society. By championing Businesses For Impact, DBS advocates for enterprises with a dual bottom line of profit and purpose, nurturing those that align with its mission and integrating them into DBS’s culture and operations.

About DBS

DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia with a presence in 19 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS is in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. The bank's "AA-" and "Aa1" credit ratings are among the highest in the world. In 2024, CRISIL Ratings reaffirmed its ‘CRISIL AAA/Stable’ rating on the corporate credit facility of DBS Bank India Ltd (DBIL). The rating on the certificate of deposits programme was also reaffirmed at ‘CRISIL A1+’.

Recognised for its global leadership, DBS has been named “World’s Best Bank” by Global Finance, “World’s Best Bank” by Euromoney and “Global Bank of the Year” by The Banker. The bank is at the forefront of leveraging digital technology to shape the future of banking, having been named “World’s Best Digital Bank” by Euromoney and the world’s “Most Innovative in Digital Banking” by The Banker. In addition, DBS has been accorded the “Safest Bank in Asia” award by Global Finance for 16 consecutive years from 2009 to 2024. In line with its focus on responsible banking, DBS was named the Best Bank for Sustainable Finance – India by Global Finance in 2024.

DBS Bank has been present in India for 30 years, opening its first office in Mumbai in 1994. DBS Bank India Limited is the first among the large foreign banks in India to start operating as a wholly owned, locally incorporated subsidiary of a leading global bank. As a trusted partner, DBS provides a range of banking services for large, medium, and small enterprises and individual consumers in India, focusing on a seamless customer experience that helps them ‘Live more, Bank less’. DBS is committed to building lasting relationships with customers as it banks the Asian way and understands the intricacies of doing business in the region’s most dynamic markets. In November 2020, Lakshmi Vilas Bank was merged with DBS Bank India Limited. DBS Bank India has a network spread across 350 locations, in 19 Indian states.

The DBS Foundation is committed to uplifting lives and livelihoods of those in need. Since 2014, it has been championing innovative businesses for impact – businesses that are focused on addressing key societal issues and achieve profit through purpose. Through philanthropic funding, capacity-building, mentorship and other support measures, DBS Foundation catalyses the growth and impact of these purpose-driven businesses. It also seeks to ignite positive change by helping the underserved and underprivileged to build towards better circumstances. This includes providing essential needs to those without and fostering inclusion by equipping them with financial and digital literacy skills. DBS Foundation also works with other like-minded partners to ignite enduring change. Its vision is to spark collective action to help build a better world; to make every day better and every tomorrow brighter.

About Haqdarshak

Haqdarshak is bridging the information and access gap between citizens and social protection services (both government and private) using tech and a last-mile field agent network of ‘Haqdarshaks’ (most of whom are women).

The company has digitised (and continues to digitise) information related to government schemes on its multiple digital portals in 14 vernacular languages. Information about the benefits of these schemes is also made available to intended beneficiaries (including MSMEs) through various B2C channels.

‘Haqdarshaks’ use an ‘eligibility-discovery engine’ (via an ‘Agent’ app designed specifically for them) that helps them identify schemes for citizens easily. The Agent app is also used to track the progress of submitted applications. In addition, ‘Haqdarshaks’ are extensively trained on how to liaise with government and bank officials in order to submit applications, overcome roadblocks, and track benefits. Haqdarshak is also working on scaling their latest offerings, ‘Yojana Cards’ and ‘Yojana Kendras’ which are set to build better networks and pathways to social security and financial inclusion.

Present in over 30+ states in India, Haqdarshak has trained more than 45,000 agents so far and provided benefits worth over INR 19,232 crore to over 68 lakh Indian citizens and 93,000+ micro-businesses.

Media Contacts:

DBS Bank India Rohini Rego rohinirego@dbs.com  99305 49207

Adfactors PR Kashni Kadakia kashni.kadakia@adfactorspr.com   9820562269