-Business Standard Government's financial inclusion mission is well intentioned, but it may be putting a severe strain on the banking sector Sometime in August, a rumour went around a small village near Alwar in Rajasthan and in some other parts of the country: "Sarkar jo kala dhan wapas layegi, woh Jan Dhan yojana ke khaato mein baanta jayega" (When the government brings back black money, it will be distributed among Jan Dhan...

-Down to Earth The government is clueless about incentives it has promised under its Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana to bring every family under the formal banking system ON AUGUST 15, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced extending the financial inclusion plan of the former UPA government and renamed it Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), he was well aware of its limitations. Though launched in 2010, the plan had miserably failed...

-The Indian Express Earlier this month, the ministry of finance announced that over 50 million new bank accounts have been opened and 17 million debit cards issued since the launch of a bold new plan to grant financial access to the poor. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced this initiative, called the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), in a speech in August. Its ultimate goal is to reach 150 million unbanked...

-The Hindu Agroforestry promotes productive cropping environments, prevents deforestation, protects watersheds and enables agricultural land to withstand extreme weather events Growing trees on farms is a triple-win strategy for combating simultaneously the challenges of increasing food production, mitigating greenhouse gases and adapting to climate change. It is an instrument of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), catapulted to centre-stage by President Obama's launch of the Global Alliance for CSA at the World Climate Summit on...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Right to life outweighed right to do business with the Supreme Court on Monday rejecting State Bank of India's petition challenging an Allahabad high court order directing sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh to sell the sugar stock hypothecated to SBI against loans to pay sugarcane farmers' dues. Sugar mills had taken loans totaling Rs 3,000 crore from SBI by hypothecating their sugar stock. Under law, the...