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 role in reaching financial services to low-income households. In regulating the sector, there is need for caution in setting interest...
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States in India: Governance holds key, size is only secondary by Subodh Varma
Are smaller states easier to govern and hence better for the people? The most recent reorganization took place in November 2000 when three mega states - Uttar Pradesh,Bihar and Madhya Pradesh - were sliced up to give birth to Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, respectively. It is more than a decade since then. The new states are now well-established. But, how are they faring compared to the 'mother' states? Has the...
More »Tool of exclusion by Nikhil Dey
The UID in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act may simplify the administrator's task, but will not make a poor man's task any easier. EVERY time there is talk of tinkering with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), it is time we recalled how and why the Act came into existence. The passage of the NREGA was Parliament's response to a people's movement that grew out of the recognition and...
More »Where development hasn’t quite reached by Bhamati Sivapalan and Yamini Deenadayalan
After being mired in controversies across the nation over multi-crore scams, the MGNREGA scheme hasn’t quite made headway in Bulandshahr district’s Anupshahr yet, say Bhamati Sivapalan and Yamini Deenadayalan “MGNREGA is a flop in Uttar Pradesh,” extended NGO worker Manish Sharma, as small talk, at the block development office of Anupshahr in the Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh. Despite having been in force since 2005, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment...
More »Fixing poverty line at Rs 32 per capita/day doesnt even guarantee a bare subsistence by Raghav Gaiha & Vani S Kulkarni
-The Economic Times The UPA government - especially the Planning Commission - has been taken to task for fixing a poverty line at a level (Rs 32 per capita/day in urban areas) that does not even guarantee a bare subsistence. In the medley of scathing critiques and rebuttals, three strands of arguments seem dominant. One is that the poverty line is utterly unrealistic as a measure of subsistence requirements of food, health...
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