-The Hindu The report of an RBI-appointed committee on financial inclusion and financial deepening has stimulated a wide-ranging debate on these crucial areas. However, policy measures initiated by the government and the RBI while adding to the numbers of new bank branches, new accounts and so on did not really enhance the quality of such inclusive practices. In September last year, the RBI asked the committee chaired by Nachiket Mor...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: BJP on Wednesday made a strong pitch for increasing the minimum pension to beneficiaries under the employees pension scheme (EPS) to Rs 3,000 per month and link it to the price index, against Rs 1,000 proposed by the government. "The BJP demands that the minimum pension under EPS 95 (EPF Pension) should be declared at Rs 3,000 per month and not at Rs 1,000 as government...

A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

-The Hindustan Times Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and made a strong case for increasing the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders for households besides sought the passage of key anti-corruption bills in the forthcoming session of Parliament. Congress sources said Gandhi is expected to meet the Prime Minister once again in the coming days exclusively on the issue of raising the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders. Soon...

-The Hoot We can either spend another year discovering how much the old model is disintegrating or we can explore alternatives. But India has not developed a tradition as yet of not-for-profit journalism, says SEVANTI NINAN. Two recent developments at the New York Times and at Time Inc. which publishes Time magazine underscore the fact that financing has and will remain become the number one issue for the future of journalism as...