Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

Final Report/Synopsis of Research Results:

The poor are largely defined on the basis of financial status and behaviour, which is narrowly equated with their access to and use of state currencies. In contrast, this study finds that among the Konda Reddis of south India different stores of value co-exist with state currencies. These stores of value can be seen as different forms of money with varying levels of transferability, with value and transferability locally constituted. At the same time, neither the form nor the value and transferability of local forms of money are static but rather transform in accordance to changes outside the local sphere. The paper argues, using the case of the Konda Reddis, that there are different forms of money which do not get replaced or substituted but co-exist with new entrants in turn having different standards or value which contribute to the complexity of financial behaviour.