-The Indian Express Rajasthan/ Delhi: Three states where the UPA govt has rolled out direct cash transfers go to polls later this year. On the ground, the scheme has not quite turned out the game-changer the government reckoned it would. A frail Gori Sahaab, 90, instructs his son to pour mustard oil into a tiny diya in his one-room house. He once used a kerosene lamp but has stopped buying that fuel....

-Outlook Gadchiroli: A poor tribal woman has been running from pillar to post for the last 15 days to open a bank account. In absence of a bank account, Sarika Sanjay Madavi, who has a two-month-old child, is unable to avail benefit of a financial assistance scheme of the Maharashtra Government. The 25-year-old resides with her husband and mother- in-law in village Chatgaon under Dhanora taluka of this Eastern Maharashtra district, which is...

-The Hindu Business Line A mint-fresh working paper by the Reserve Bank of India once again trains the spotlight on a problem that, for five decades, every policy-maker has planned to snuff out, failed to, and then wished it would go away if ignored. But financial exclusion simply hasn't, and we now have the central bank applying its forensic skills to an examination of its magnitude. The title of Working Paper Series...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Sluggish economy and soaring personal aspirations are teaming up to create fertile ground for quick-rich chit fund schemes and non-banking finance companies such as the now-infamous Saradha to mushroom, but rules to give Jharkhand investors the much-needed safety net are hanging fire since over a year. Jharkhand Assembly had early last year forwarded rules framed by the state's institutional finance department for the President's consideration under The Chit Funds...

-The Indian Express Chit fund scams shine the light on the need to overhaul the financial regulatory architecture Cases of semi-regulated or unregulated entities making unrealistic promises to consumers are roiling the financial landscape. It is high time the government sees the pattern and undertakes fundamental change. The search for a solution must factor in two realities. The first is the failure of the formal regulated financial system. The breakdown of present...