-The Indian Express Building on the Jan Dhan framework, India should move from price to income support Financial inclusion is an important policy pillar of the Narendra Modi government to ensure inclusive development (sabka saath, sabka vikas). What it means, in brief, is to mainstream financial services for the masses, especially credit at affordable costs from institutional sources. This is not the first time financial inclusion is being given a thrust. Various...

-TheWire.in The government is gearing up to prepare the Union Budget 2016-17. The Ministry of Finance is holding pre-budget consultations with various groups for their inputs to make it inclusive and progressive. The Finance Minister, in his opening remarks during the pre-budget meetings with the social sector mentioned that “Inclusive growth is high on the priorities of the present government and the government will take adequate measures to ensure social security...

  A French journalist once wrote: The more things change, the more they stay the same. Perhaps the same can be said about nutritional status of children in West Bengal at present in comparison to the past. At the time when Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, was entertaining private capital in Singur and Nandigram, the rate of undernutrition was quite high in his state. A little less than...

-The Hindu Several instances of in-kind transfers being successfully implemented. Social sector groups want Finance Minister to review the implementation of alternative subsidy systems before going ahead with Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). “There have been several instances of in-kind transfers being successfully implemented in various parts of the country. Our appeal to the Finance Minister was to look at all the successful examples of alternative schemes before the government pushes ahead with the...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Rock-star French economist Thomas Piketty said it was "very moving" for him to be in Mumbai "after what happened in Paris in the last few weeks". In a wide-ranging conversation moderated by writer Patrick French, Piketty, author of the acclaimed Capital, an exposition on global inequality, and renowned Harvard professor Michael Sandel, whom French introduced as "the public philosopher of the BBC", talked about everything from growing...