-PTI Parliament on Thursday paved the way for corporate houses to enter the banking sector by approving the banking bill, a key reform legislation pending for long. Parliament also passed the amendments to the debt recovery laws or Sarfesi law after a reply by finance minister P Chidambaram on the combined discussion on the two bills in Rajya Sabha. These two Bills -- Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, and Enforcement of Security Interest...

The finance ministry has asked public sector banks to devise products for Indian farmers to ensure they get adequate funding in emergencies. The government, the majority owner of such banks, wants them to roll out products such as emergency loans to farmers that will be linked to savings accounts, a weather index-based insurance product, and set up a credit guarantee fund that will aid farmers in the event of crop losses...

The microfinance bubble has burst. The AP government ordinance, the AP oppositionfs campaign asking borrowers not to repay and the sheer public hostility towards MFIs . all these have put the brakes on MFI activities for now. We need to rethink the role of MFIs in the rural economy . In order to do so, we must first grasp some of the myths on which the MFI sector has rested...

In an attempt to further subsidise short-term crop loan to farmers, the Union Cabinet on Friday approved release of Rs 4,868 crore to public sector banks. The decision will ensure that farmers, in general, receive short-term crop loan at 7% per annum (5% for prompt payers) with an upper limit of Rs 3 lakh on the principal amount during 2010-11. "The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for the release...