By Chuppala Nagesh Bhushan A collateral-free education loan guarantee that reached 410,333 borrowers by November 2019 sent about 70% of its sanctioned money to General-category borrowers and about 9.5% to SC and ST borrowers combined; a 2026 study of caste-marginalized market actors suggests why access alone does not guarantee fair inclusion. Why markets are not caste-neutral A 2026 Business & Society study by Jagadale, Mohapatra and Singh argues that market inclusion is not the same as fair participation when caste shapes the terms of exchange. Bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) and subsistence-marketplace research, the authors say, treats poverty as a shortage of income and access, and so overlooks birth-ascribed hierarchies that decide who is trusted, who is served well and who is treated with dignity. The authors propose the Bottom of the Caste Pyramid (BOCP) as a relational and processual lens. It is relational because caste-marginalized actors are pushed to the bottom thro...