-The Indian Express A little more than a week ago, World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which he called an “extraordinary effort” at financial inclusion. According to the Union finance ministry, India has attained 99 per cent financial inclusion, measured as households’ access to bank accounts. Within three months of launching the PMJDY, the government entered the Guinness...

-Hindustan Times The issue of recovering the full extent of the value of our natural resources from parties to whom they are being assigned has reverberated throughout the economy ever since the Supreme Court delivered its judgements in the 2G scam (dealing with the State's earnings from selling spectrum) and on coal block allocations. In both instances, past practice and legal provisions had unwittingly handed these resources to parties at a pittance. Under...

-NDTV There is the reality of a farmer's suicide and then there are versions of this reality. Whether you choose to accept the farmer's context of poverty, debt and extreme risk, or deny it, often depends on the class and profession you belong to. Fields pockmarked with brown mounds create a surreal setting. At least nine suicides by farmers have been linked to the crisis in West Bengal's potato belt. Farmers have...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The BJP-led NDA government showed great speed in promulgating an ordinance to push through the land acquisition act, but an investigation by HT reveals that thousands of hectares of land acquired by the government is lying unused in several states. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh top the list of states where land acquired even decades ago has not been industrialised. In the past 50 years, for instance, the...

-Tehelka Prime Minister announced increase in quantum of compensation for crop damage to affected farmers by 50 per cent. Showering a bright hope to small Entrepreneur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) bank under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana which will provide credit up to 10 lakh to small Entrepreneur and act as a regulator for ‘Micro-Finance Institutions' (MFIs). The prime minister also announced increase in...