-The Hindu Business Line The RBI has its task cut out as it sets about addressing the sector’s credit and viability concerns A debate on MSMEs has come alive due to the Centre’s insistence on a regulatory reprieve for the beleaguered sector post GST and post demonetisation. The RBI at its last Board meeting that Urjit Patel chaired, promised to set up a Committee on the MSME sector by the end of...

-PTI The biometric identity system is set for a revamp with new offline verification tools, non-intrusive approach Aadhaar, the country’s extraordinary attempt to give every citizen a biometric identity, is set for a massive revamp with new offline verification tools and non-intrusive ways for people seeking to voluntarily use the 12-digit unique number for new Bank Accounts and mobile connections. After a chaotic 2018, led by the landmark Supreme Court (SC) ruling on the constitutional...

-The Telegraph Many families depend on two entitlements for survival: social security pensions and rations from the public distribution system Particularly vulnerable tribal groups, earlier known as primitive tribal groups, are the sort of people you may never meet unless you take the trouble to look for them. In Jharkhand, they live in small hamlets scattered over the nooks and crannies of the state’s undulating forests. Without a purpose and some local...

-Down to Earth The scheme's Management Information System destroys local accountability, promotes centralisation and administrative control and gives out wrong data There is an increasing tendency in the Union government to show performances of central schemes, especially social welfare programmes, through data captured by the Management Information System (MIS). It is indeed a matter of astonishment how the MIS data always shows high performances of schemes and programmes, while ground surveys and...

-TheWire.in Implementing the loan waiver in Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan will not be easy. It will cost Rs 80,000 crore and might need the states to double the spending on agriculture. New Delhi: On Monday, the newly appointed chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath, proudly announced that his first executive decision was to waive farm loans in the state. While campaigning for the assembly elections, the Congress party had promised that if...