-The Indian Express Too many of our economic prescriptions are based on dogma, empirical half-truths It has become fashionable to say, following the conclusions of Michael Spence’s Growth Commission, that there is no single recipe for growth, only some common ingredients. Such a claim brings a due degree of modesty to what we do or do not know about growth. And at the very least, such a claim has the virtue of...
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At 3 crore rural accounts, banks set global record
-The Financial Express The banking sector has opened over three crore accounts in rural India as part of their financial inclusion drive. Compared to the number of rural households in the country of over 22 crore this is about 13 per cent. The government data upto March 31, 2012 also shows the extent to which the banking sector has to stretch to make the Aadhaar programme a success. The Aadhaar roll out of...
More »Socialism, Cash Down-Uttam Sengupta and Arindam Mukherjee
-Outlook Its ploy of Aadhar-hinged cash transfer may have won the Congress political points, but will it really be a game-changer? State-Wise 40% of the 22 crore Aadhar numbers are in Andhra Pradesh (4.7 crore) and Maharashtra (4 crore) 20% is what the two politically sensitive, Congress-ruled states account for of the 51 districts where DCT will be rolled out 55 lakh Aadhar numbers in TMC-run West Bengal. BJP-ruled Gujarat (57...
More »Micro ATMs Planned for Transfer of Cash to Poor -M Rajshekhar & Dheeraj Tiwari
-The Economic Times The government is likely to shoot down the department of financial services’ (DFS) plan to appoint common banking correspondent companies for transferring cash to poor people, and replace it with a countrywide network of ‘micro ATMs’, as it seeks to finalise the last-mile payment architecture for cash transfers. In a meeting on Monday evening, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani, and Planning Commission officials met Finance...
More »Policies goad Indian farmers to suicide: Civil society-Ashok Kumar
-One World South Asia Reducing incomes, stagnating yields, increasing costs of cultivation, fragmenting of land-holdings and reducing of institutions credit facilities plot the graph of farmers' suicides in India. A national consultation and public hearing on framers' suicides being organised by Action Aid in the capital brought together experts and policy critics to evaluate the progress of government initiatives to respond to the ongoing agrarian crisis. Suicides are only one extreme symptom of...
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