-The Hindu Banks continue denying loans to low-income groups, insisting on sticking to a standard EMI route even though they are dealing with a complex social issue. In July 2012, Pradeep Kumar, a 36-year-old resident of Ladpur, a shanty town that sits on the north-western periphery of Delhi, applied for an employment loan at the magistrate’s office in Kanjawala district. Under the Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana or PMRY — a funding policy...
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Lifting of Iran sanctions boon for basmati -Dilip Kumar Jha
-Business Standard Export to Iran might hit a record high Lifting of global economic sanctions on Iran could, it is hoped in the trade, enable a new record for basmati rice export to that country from here in 2015-16. Iran is also expected to cut import duty on Indian basmati from 40 per cent now to 20 per cent from the new season, starting October. Our basmati export was a record 1.44 million...
More »Social Safety nets require more public funding
The nation can be proud of running some of the world's largest programmes on social safety nets, says the latest report by World Bank. However, public spending on safety nets is still low in comparison to neighbouring countries Bangladesh and Pakistan. India tops the list of 136 countries for running the world's largest school feeding programme i.e. the Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS), and also the biggest public works programme i.e....
More »Atal Pension Yojana: Guaranteed, but low pension -Anand Kalyanaraman
-The Hindu Business Line The Atal Pension Yojana is intended as a safety net for workers in the informal sector The Atal Pension Yojana (APY), like the National Pension System (NPS), seeks to provide monthly pension to subscribers from the age of 60. While the APY is open to all citizens of India between 18-40 years, it is focussed on workers in the unorganised sector. Guaranteed pension The scheme has been tailored to make it...
More »Solutions can come from the slums -Thillai Rajan A & Sriharini Narayanan
-The Hindu Urban planning that involves the people and alternative service providers gives far better results than top-down efforts from the government, finds an IIT-M study In Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, the responsibility of managing and maintaining a set of more than 160 community toilets was handed over by the Tiruchirapalli City Corporation to a federation of women self-help groups. A post-programme field survey of 803 households revealed that the community participation had...
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