It would be great if the enthusiasm on the financial inclusion agenda gets a pause from the frantic do-gooders . Too many people appear to be enthusiastic about serving the poor - and the kindness is killing. Back in 1956, we discovered that cooperatives were a great instrument to reach out to the poor. These were peoples' institutions, local and would be responsive to the problems of their members. A set of...
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Small farmers still excluded from formal financial channels
-The Economic Times Small and marginal farmers who constitute more than 80% of total farmer households in the country face exclusion from formal financial channels," says the Nair Committee on priority sector lending. The same report says "commercial banks have been prescribed targets since late 1960s for priority sector lending". The banking system failed the farmers and the needy despite nationalisation, but is there a viable model that could help the millions...
More »Budget 2012: Finance ministry set to hike agriculture lending target despite sharp rise in NPAs by Dheeraj Tiwari
The finance ministry is all set to increase the agriculture lending target by around 25% in the budget for 2012-13 despite a sharp increase in the non-performing loans in the sector. In the last budget, the government had increased the target to 4.75 lakh crore from 3.75 lakh crore in the year before. "Banks will continue to focus on all priority sector areas. This year more focus will be on direct lending...
More »No BPL or APL for sanitation scheme: Ramesh by K Balchand
The Centre plans to remove the distinction between below poverty line (BPL) and above poverty line (APL) and bring all the needy under the Total Sanitation Scheme (TSC). It would be renamed as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan to send home the message that its implementation would be a people's movement rather than a bureaucratic programme. The new scheme will be part of the structural changes to be introduced from April. Union Minister...
More »Credit disbursements to dalit entrepreneurs drops 33.8% this fiscal by Divya Rajagopal
Lack of adequate credit - the lifeblood for any company is threatening to derail fledgling attempts by hundreds of dalit entrepreneurs to overcome deep socio-economic barriers and break into mainstream business. Without credit, such entrepreneurs would also struggle to cash-in on the Rs 7,000-crore business opportunity opened up by the central government's new dalit-friendly sourcing plan, unveiled last month. Credit disbursements to dalit entrepreneurs through 20-odd schemes run by the Ministry of...
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