The RBI’s monetary policy statement for 2012-13 has said that penetration of banks in rural areas has increased. It said that banks are now providing banking services in rural areas through 1,38,502 outlets. This includes 24,085 rural branches, 1,11,948 business correspondent outlets, and 2,469 outlets through other modes. In early March 2010, banks had only 21,475 brick and mortar branches in rural areas. No-frills accounts No-frills accounts have increased to around 99 million with...

Money from the Department for International Development has helped pay for a controversial programme that has led to miscarriages and even deaths after botched operations Tens of millions of pounds of UK aid money have been spent on a programme that has forcibly sterilised Indian women and men, the Observer has learned. Many have died as a result of botched operations, while others have been left bleeding and in agony. A...

Chandoriya village in Madhya Pradesh's Raisen district is down with chicken pox. Over the past 10 days, the virus has spread through the dalit-dominated hamlet situated about 120km north of the state capital.  The district administration on Sunday rushed a medical team to Chandoriya. The situation went out of control as villagers had more faith in quacks than the government hospital and health centres. They believed the disease came as the...

-The Economic Times   What's common between foggy movements of two army battalions, the government auditor's assessments of large notional losses to the exchequer and a letter from the army chief to the PM on his unit's preparedness for war?  The information in each of these instances in the past six months was marked 'secret' in official files, but screamed its way to the public, forcing the government into damage-control mode.  Information leaks in...

Each time 25 year old Salma takes her one year old son Zubair to the Batla Clinic (a private clinic in Delhi) for a shot of the DPT, the cost of transportation and the vaccine adds up to approximately Rs.500.   When it is time for Zubair to take the next immunization dose, Salma may find that the expenses have entirely spiraled out of her reach. New vaccines and expensive brands of baby...