Piramal Finance lends on 'neeyat' not paperwork — and takes a 2025 Global Grand Effie

In India's Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, millions of small businesses and households earn legitimate income in cash. They have no payslips, tax filings or repayment history, so formal lenders treat them as uncreditworthy whatever their actual record — a systemic bias that Piramal Finance, the lending arm of Piramal Enterprises, decided to attack.

Piramal Finance's first brand campaign, launched in January 2023 with The Womb, was titled 'Hum Kagaz Se Zyaada Neeyat Dekhte Hain' — 'we look at neeyat (intent) more than paper'. Two opening films followed real families hitting loan roadblocks, shot in authentic small-town lives rather than the aspirational white-collar settings of Indian loan advertising, and the lender promised to weigh intent and integrity alongside documents when judging borrowers.

The platform ran in chapters. Later films told the stories of a mill owner expanding, a father completing his family home, and a bakery owner rebuilding with his daughter; the December 2025 chapter was The Womb's third year on the idea. Each wave was promoted across TV, digital, OTT and Piramal Finance's own branches, keeping one belief — character counts as much as documentation — at the center of a growing retail loan book.

Entered for effectiveness as 'NEEYAT: India's Real Credit Score', the work won the Global Grand Effie in Positive Change – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the 2025 Global Best of the Best Awards, announced April 30, 2026. It was one of just 11 Global Grand winners chosen from 47 contenders across 130 markets, alongside ESAF Small Finance Bank's Grand Effie for 'Saving Her Savings'.