One of the key factors to inclusive growth is financial inclusion for all. Financial inclusion refers to universal access to a wide range of banking solutions and financial services in a fair, predictable and transparent manner at affordable costs. The poor tend to be ignored because the transaction costs in serving them are high. Initiatives that reduce these costs will allow service providers to begin thinking of financial services for...

-The Hindu Show-cause for whistle-blower, Naga Mothers Association Unhappy with the implementation of the National Rural Health Mission, the Naga Mothers Association (NMA) — an apex body of women of different tribes in Nagaland — has called for a full-fledged inquiry into the scheme to eliminate shortcomings and ensure transparent and effective health delivery service. In a memorandum submitted to Governor Nikhil Kumar, a copy of which has been sent to the Union...

Trinamool Congress government’s policies in West Bengal are leading to suicides of small farmers, a reign of terror in the Jangalmahal area and a curbing of academic and trade union rights. Its student activists beat up students and teachers who do not profess loyalty to the party. Will the CPI(M) which led the previous Left Front government for 34 years and paid the price for its insolence and corruption...

Rural women entrepreneurs in Rajasthan produce a nutritious food supplement as take home rations for pregnant mothers and underfed infants   There is very little that distinguishes the hamlet of Madri from the innumerable others that dot southern Rajasthan. This is a region where the Aravallis make their presence felt in gnarled hillocks, where water is scarce and where the land yields its harvests grudgingly. People here, including toddlers, know well the edge...

-The Telegraph   A routine road trip from Ranchi to Dhanbad was enough for an aghast senior functionary of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to pull up Jharkhand for illegal mining and exploitation of tribals at the hands of the coal mafia. A source told The Telegraph that NHRC secretary-general Rajiv Sharma had visited the state in January. “On a drive from Ranchi to Dhanbad, he saw tribal children pushing coal-laden cycles uphill. It...