-Press release by World Bank dated November 14, 2022 NEW DELHI: A new World Bank report estimates that India will need to invest $840 billion over the next 15 years—or an average of $55 billion per annum—into urban infrastructure if it is to effectively meet the needs of its fast-growing urban population. The report, titled “Financing India’s Urban Infrastructure Needs: Constraints to Commercial Financing and Prospects for Policy Action” underlines the...

-TheWire.in The Narela industrial complex is one of the biggest in Asia, packed with booming small-scale industrial units. It runs entirely on the labour of low-income workers who have very little say on their pay and living conditions. In order to start liberalising trade and industrial production capacity through economic policy, the Indian nation-state began implementing a set of Washington Consensus style neo-liberal economic reforms in the early 1990s. The liberalisation push across...

-TheWeek.in Demand funding to recover from pandemic shock Indian businesses are bullish on the economy and India’s growth story, but could do with some help from the banking system. This was the message Indian businesses, especially those from the medium and small scale industries sector, have for the establishment. “When it comes to cost of capital, our banks have not done enough,” said Saket Dalmia, the new president of the PHD Chamber of...

-The Hindu Business Line Why Access to Capital for MSME entrepreneurs has the potential to alter India’s social fabric India’s social fabric has undergone a series of transformations since Independence. After the liberalisation of the economy in the 1990s, the market opened up and employment opportunities grew, as did the spending power and standard of living of the average Indian. As financial access grew, so did social mobility. However, certain sections have lagged...

-Livemint.com Tackle deficiencies of capital mobilization, access to state provisions and women’s participation to boost FPCs across India. In 2017, the Indian government reaffirmed its commitment to reduce rural distress among nearly 93 million farming households through efforts to double farmers’ income. What has been remarkable is the emergence of farmer producer companies (FPCs) as a viable way of supporting this approach. The last two years have been tumultuous. Pro-market legislation introduced in...