-The Hindu We need to revisit the credit policy with a focus on the outreach of banks and financial inclusion Since Independence, one of the primary objectives of India’s agricultural policy has been to improve farmers’ access to institutional credit and reduce their dependence on informal credit. As informal sources of credit are mostly usurious, the government has improved the flow of adequate credit through the nationalisation of commercial banks, and the...

-The Hindu Business Line Scars on agriculture supply chain remain a pain point for commodity prices Bengaluru: A year after demonetisation, the cash-intensive agriculture sector is yet to fully recover from the impact. Cash continues to be the preferred instrument for rural and farm transactions, while alternatives such as cheques and bank transfers are seen making their presence felt in some quarters. The cautious agri-trade is still seen struggling with inventory management, as the...

-Firstpost.com Development economist Jean Dreze has been vociferous critic of the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes a year back. He had famously warned that "demonetisation in a booming economy is like shooting at the tyres of a racing car". A year on, it seems his caution has come true. In the first quarter of the current financial year, the GDP growth slowed to a three-year...

-Newsclick.in Crucial elements of the data on Jan Dhan Yojana have been removed from the government website. This gives rise to many questions. On 15 August 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) scheme with the claimed objective of nation-wide financial inclusion. In his speech, he stated that the initiative was aimed at eradicating ‘financial untouchability’ by opening at least one bank account per household in...

-The Indian Express In the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, public sector banks and regional rural banks have opened 29.13 crore accounts as against 96 lakh accounts by the private banks. Chennai: The All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), the largest body representing over 3,25,000 officers, opposed the Centre’s move making Aadhaar mandatory and forcing bank officers to do Aadhar seeding. When the matter is subjudice in the...