Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been removed as the managing director of Grameen Bank, the organisation he founded in Bangladesh in 1983 to help the poor. The central bank has cited a rule that requires retirement at 60 to order the ouster of the 70-year-old “banker to the poor” who has been embroiled in a Norwegian funds scandal. Yunus had also fallen out with the political establishment after, fresh from the Nobel...

Farmers can continue to reap a financial harvest that first came as a windfall loan waiver of Rs 60,000 crore in 2008. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee raised the target for loan disbursal to the farmers from the present Rs 3,75,000 crore to Rs 4,75,000 crore in 2011-12, nearly a 27% jump.Mukherjee has raised the target consistently in 2010-11, the loan target was raised by over 15% at Rs 3.75 lakh...

Food security and organic farming can go hand in hand. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today gave a green signal to efforts under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture to promote green manuring and organic farming while talking about bringing in the Food Securtiy Act this year, settling the debate on high pesticide and chemical fertiliser use in Punjab and Haryana. He said his government is mulling to also bring urea,...

Pranab Mukherjee, India’s finance minister, put the rural economy at the heart of a national budget on Monday, saying ridding the farm sector of crippling supply bottlenecks would be his “focus” in the coming fiscal year.A market-neutral budget supporting agriculture, welfare schemes and the extension of banking services to more people was designed to dispel any sense that the Congress party-led government was in drift after a series of high...

Although rising food prices remain a critical concern, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is counting on better supply management, improved output of pulses and rice, better access to rural Credit and strengthening of existing agricultural schemes to bolster India’s farm output. The rural economy employs about 60% of India’s work force, contributes about 17% of gross domestic product, and is expected to post 5.4% growth over last year, according to advanced estimates...