In 2024, global employment expanded in line with a growing labour force, keeping the global unemployment rate steady at 5 per cent, similar to that of 2023. Slowing productivity growth remains a major bottleneck with respect to expanding the opportunities for decent work. On the back of stable unemployment rates, …
As modern climate change causes rapid geographical shifts of environmental conditions, there are great concerns that numerous species could be unable to track suitable environments, thereby incurring a 'climatic debt'. Recently, Devictor et al. reported that the composition of bird and butterfly communities across Europe has changed at a lower …
In their comment, Rodríguez-Sánchez et al. claim that our conclusions on the climatic debt of birds and butterflies are premature because introducing statistical and biological uncertainties in species-specific thermal tolerance (species temperature index, STI) would blur the temporal trend in the community temperature index CTI). Here, we show why our …
This Committee was mandated by the Finance Minister to give a report outlining a roadmap for fiscal consolidation in a medium term framework in pursuit of the FRBM Act and related targets.The Committee was charged with the task of introducing mid-term corrections in the current fiscal year 2012-13 and to …
This paper reviews the progress of SHG-Bank linkage programme at the national and regional levels, and examines its impact on the socio-economic conditions of SHG member households. The programme has grown at a tremendous pace during last two decades and emerged as the most prominent means of delivering micro-finance services …
This paper examines the feminisation of labour in a rural agrarian district in Kerala beset by agrarian indebtedness and distress. Without disregarding that women in less developed and agrarian economies are mostly engaged in agriculture and related activities, the focus here is on the newfound "interest" of women in economic …
A Rs. 500 crore farmers' loan relief scheme to aid the debt-ridden farmers, many of whom have been forced to commit suicide, and three rural development schemes named after the Samajwadi Party ideologue Ram Manohar Lohia are among the 280 new populist measures proposed in the State Budget for the …
The Green Revolution was India’s first industrial agricultural revolution that replaced the traditional farming system completely. But the adverse consequences of Green Revolution in the form of stagnation in production aggravated the problems of the farmers in the era of post-Green Revolution in 1980s and 1990s. The late 1990s witnessed …
Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is trying to re-establish his ‘farmer-friendly’ politician image but it’s been hard going with the flip-flop on commodity exports and rising farmer suicides. In April, he wrote to the prime minister criticising the government’s export policies for being “against the interests of the farming community”. …
Survey data collected in 2007 from three districts in Andhra Pradesh, this article assesses the performance of 72 primary agricultural credit cooperatives. It finds that these credit cooperatives tend to be used as political instruments and, as a result, borrowers prioritise all debt obligations to microfinance institutions, informal moneylenders and …
Analysis of poverty and its dimensions are various as the ways in which poverty affects the daily sustenance of the poor. Poverty, many a times is simply viewed as an issue of income. What poverty means for the poor is a wide range of dynamic aspects. This paper presents results …
The March 2012 edition of the India Economic Update, apart from analyzing the macroeconomic situation in the country today, also takes a closer look at agriculture. Food inflation may have relented, but food prices continue to be much higher. Production of high-protein foods, fruits and vegetables has not kept pace …
Competition is tough in the seed market, which may explain why marketing gimmicks are often used to woo farmers. It’s tougher still for the farmers to get compensation when the claims fail and they are saddled with a bad or damaged crop. Sometimes the state government steps in to offer …
While Governor M K Narayanan has also put the weight of his office behind the growing concern over farmer suicides in West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee government seems determined to play these down. In Burdwan, the state’s rice bowl, where 18 of the 27 deaths have been reported in the …
A study of the socio-economic situations of three villages in north-eastern Andhra Pradesh shows that while times and values have vastly changed, not much has been transformed in terms of privileges and opportunities. Those belonging to landowning families have managed to get a good education and secure good jobs or …
The world economy in 2012 is set to grow by just 2.5 percent, weighed down by ripple effects from the 2008 financial crisis, says the World Bank's latest Global Economic Prospects (GEP) 2012. The sovereign debt crisis in Europe, which took a turn for the worse in August 2011, coincides …
Introduced in 2005, the joint World Bank-IMF Debt Sustainability Framework (DSF) is a standardized framework for conducting public and external debt sustainability analysis (DSA) in low-income countries (LICs). It aims to help guide the borrowing decisions of LICs, provide guidance for creditors’ lending and grant allocation decisions, and improve World …
In Karnataka, 2,500 farmers took their lives last year. But the BJP government is turning a blind eye to their plight, reports Imran Khan Bitter harvest Boregowda’s son and daughter-in-law committed suicide due to a debt crisis THE BJP stormed to power in Karnataka in 2008 by promising to change …
The data and analysis presented in this edition of Global Development Finance are based on actual flows and debt related transactions for 2010 reported to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System (DRS). Over the years, the external financing options available to developing countries have evolved and expanded, and so too …
Recent events in south Asia have led to an unexpected reversal in the narrative of microfinance, long presented as a development success. Despite charges of poor treatment of clients, exaggeration of the impact on the poorest as well as the risks of credit bubbles, the sector can play a non-negligible …
