-The Times of India MUMBAI: A few cooperative banks, mostly in rural areas, have found a new way to bypass banking system norms put in place by the government to fight the black money menace. Since PM Narendra Modi launched the demonetisation drive on November 8, these cooperative banks, which are yet to be computerised and still use physical ledger books, are taking cash from customers and opening backdated Fixed deposits...

-The Indian Express Substantial number of interest subvention scheme loans are diverted to non-agricultural uses. Government must switch to an income-support subsidy regime The Union budget for 2016-17 has provisioned Rs 15,000 crore on account of interest subvention for short-term agricultural credit, up by Rs 2,000 crore over the revised estimate for FY16. The mere shifting of this line item from the department of financial services to the department of agriculture...

The budgetary support to interest subvention scheme has increased by almost 14 times between 2006-07 and 2016-17. However, the much-touted subsidised short-term credit scheme provides little help to the small and marginal farmers, apart from tenant farmers. According to the Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion, which submitted its report in December 2015, the interest subvention scheme suffers from 3 types of defects: i. Subsidised credit may not be...

-The Indian Express Budget makes the right moves on agriculture, but they may not be bold enough. In the last two weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed three rallies of farmers, one each in MP, Karnataka and UP. Although it was late in the game, as farmers have been reeling under acute distress for two years, yet better late than never. Addressing the rallies, the PM thundered he would like to...

-The Hindu To liberate crores of children, transgenders and others trapped in human trafficking, beggary or any such forms of forced labour, the Union government has proposed a major revamp of the rehabilitation scheme for rescued bonded workers, raising aid from the present Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 3 lakh. The government has finalised a proposal to institute a three-tier rehabilitation funding scheme, under which a rescued transgender or disabled person will get...