There have been many successes and failures in economic and social development of India in the last 75 years. The recent covid-19 pandemic had also an adverse impact on growth, employment, health and education etc. In this paper, issues and policies are discussed beyond India@75 for achieving growth, inclusion and …
The payment of wages into bank accounts for work carried out under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has been suggested as a way to prevent embezzlement of funds. The practice has already begun in a few districts. Is this a foolproof system to control corruption? The early experience from …
The 2007 National Policy on the Voluntary Sector aims at creating an enabling environment for voluntary organisations and facilitating their partnership with the government. But it suffers from a major lacuna in that it fails to comprehensively address the central aspects of autonomy, credibility and the nature of partnership itself. …
This paper tracks the organizational and financial history of the Integrated Village Development Project (IVDP) and the self-help group (SHG) network it supports in Tamil Nadu, India. It describes how the network is connecting and negotiating with a variety of formal sector institutions, paving the way towards aligning the "informal" …
Though the Union Budget was hailed as being farmer-friendly, a closer scrutiny reveals that it gives much less to villagers and the weaker sections of society than what appears at first glance. The media was quick to highlight the loan waiver for small farmers but it chose to ignore the …
The rapid growth of India's exports of commercial services during the period 2000-2006, from US $ 16 billion to US $ 72.8 billion, and of India's share in world exports from 1.1 per cent to 2.7 per cent provides ample evidence of India's international competitiveness in the services sector as …
Using panel data for the fourteen major states of India over the 1980-2000 period, the authors estimate the effect of human capital endowment on the performance of the state economies. They find that greater availability of skilled workers had a positive and significant impact on output in the service sectors. …
The question as to what levels of services ought to be provided and maintained in the urban areas of various sizes, dimensions and economic activities has been debated at various forum. It has been observed that fixing norms and standards for basic urban services is an extremely complex and critical …
This report analyzes the corporate governance and strategic approaches of 40 of the world’s largest banks to the challenges and opportunities posed by climate change. This report is designed as a benchmarking tool that highlights climate change best practices within the financial sector. It employs a “Climate Change Governance Checklist” …
Governments in many countries are increasingly aware of the urgent need to make better use of the world's energy resources. Improved energy efficiency is often the most economic and readily available means of improving energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To support better energy efficiency policy-making and evaluation, the …
Credit is one of the important inputs for rural development. The results will largely depend on the effective use of credit, and linkages developed with other requirements for the enterprise. The study on rural credit from various agencies such as commercial banks, regional rural banks, cooperative banks and District Rural …
The contradications of our rural credit system are somehow camouflaged by the "achievements" of disbursed targets and, of recent, by the success of programmes like doubling of agricultural credit. The time has come when we need to seriously look into the emerging possibility of zero-credit based organisation of production by …
A recent report by environment groups has blamed Chinese banks for investing in environment-unfriendly and controversial projects within the country as well as in developing nations. The report, Time to go Green: Environmental Responsibility in the Chinese Banking Sector, was taken out by Friends of the Earth's us chapter and …
Conventional thinking has it that combating climate change will be a drain on the global economy. But Barclays Capital, a leading investment bank in the us, has recently said that combating climate change could actually boost the world economy and climate change mitigation activities are likely to dominate financial markets. …
The Micro Financial Sector (Development & Regulations) Bill 2007 has been under the scanner of late. The bill proposes to make the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (nabard) the regulator of micro-finance sector in the country. Until now, the Reserve Bank of India has been regulating financial organisations …
That health care facilities available to the poor are insufficient is common knowledge. According to a recent report of the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (assocham), 1,083 family welfare centres fail to provide health care to the 180 million urban poor, with the shortfall being more for …
>> Viacom on March 13 slapped a billion-dollar lawsuit against Google and its affiliate YouTube in New York. It accuses the video-sharing website of massive copyright infringement. It alleges that almost 160,000 unauthorised clips of Viacom's programmes are available on YouTube, which recently said it would remove more than 100,000 …
the Union budget for 2007-08 is big on illusions, small on vision. Despite the hype about its tilt towards the agriculture sector, the budget has failed to put together a package to bail out the ailing sector. Also, despite being the first budget of the 11th Five-Year Plan, it has …
Yala, January 25, 2007: Sri Lanka's only known crossed-tusk elephant in the wild, known locally as Dalaputtuwa dies of paralysis caused by gunshot wounds in the periphery of a highly protected national park. The tusker, a rare sight in Sri Lankan jungles, was shot by 35-year old Punchi Banda Samarathunge …
