A new report entitled Improving Access to Finance for Women-owned Businesses in India (2014), jointly produced by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Government of Japan, underlines the importance of lending to women-owned micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)* in India (see the link below). It discusses the problem of accessing finance faced by women entrepreneurs despite them having stronger repayment track records vis-à-vis men (non-performing loans are 30 to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Is our democracy truly representative? Election Commission (EC) data on percentage of votes secured by winning candidates in various constituencies show it may not be so. In the 2009 general elections, only 120 winning candidates out of the 543 could secure 50 per cent or more votes polled in their respective constituencies. This meant that on remaining 423 seats (nearly 78 per cent of seats), the...

-Live Mint Andhra Pradesh's experience with social audits holds important lessons for the Congress's empowerment agenda At the heart of the Congress party's narrative on the rights-based welfare state is the idea that rights laws, to quote Sonia Gandhi, "put pressure on the executive to be more responsive and accountable" and in doing so bring about an "empowerment revolution". To enable this revolution, rights laws have had built into them procedural...

-Odisha Samachar Bhubaneswar (Odisha): The ICDS programme is being implemented in Odisha with the mandate to check Child malnutrition, Infant Mortality rate, Maternal Mortality Rate by providing nutritious food to the children, pregnant and lactating women. Despite a number of circulars being issued and huge fund sanctioned, implementation of ICDS programme has been disastrous in the state. Huge corruption, delay in release of fund, low quality of food, poor monitoring and...

-The Hindu     Gaps between Muslims and the national average on most human development outcomes are narrowing, reflecting their improving condition The Prime Minister's high-level Sachar Committee, which analysed the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India - based on data for the 1990s, concluded that Muslims were doing much worse than the rest of the population on most social indicators. Here, we examine how the socio-economic indicators of Muslims...