-The Hindu The report of an RBI-appointed committee on financial inclusion and financial deepening has stimulated a wide-ranging debate on these crucial areas. However, policy measures initiated by the government and the RBI while adding to the numbers of new bank branches, new accounts and so on did not really enhance the quality of such inclusive practices. In September last year, the RBI asked the committee chaired by Nachiket Mor...

A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

-The Conversation Resource-intensive agriculture, despite its productivity, nevertheless has failed to feed the world's current population, never mind the nine billion people expected by 2050. This system that currently fails both people and planet is ripe for revision. We need to be more ambitious, to go beyond simply producing more. We need to produce more of what's good - not just cereal staples, but nutrition-dense foods - in ways that can prevent...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: The World Bank has approved a $500 million Credit for the rural water supply and sanitation (RWSS) project to improve piped water supply and sanitation services through decentralized delivery systems in the states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. According to Census 2011 data, only 31% of the 167 million rural households in India have access to tap water and domestic toilets. About 67% of the...

-Outlook Jammu: Agriculture and Rural development bank Nabard today called for farmer-friendly policies and increase in investments to give boost to the agriculture sector in Jammu and Kashmir, which is the mainstay of the state. Asserting that nothing much has been done by the respective government after the land-to-tiller mega decision of former Chief Minister Sheikh Mohmmad Abdullah, a senior Nabard official said that there was a need for carrying forward the...