The Bill to regulate MicroFinance Institutions tabled in the Andhra Pradesh assembly on Friday has upset the MicroFinance institutions (MFI) network, who say their concerns have not been addressed and that may force them to shut operations in the state. "Repayment has fallen drastically and so we are not in a position to continue operations in Andhra Pradesh unless the situation is remedied," said Vijay Mahajan, President, Micro Finance Institutions Network. The...

Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai on Saturday said he had neither heard nor seen the tapes of conversations between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others, and denied leaking the tapes at the behest of Home Minister P. Chidambaram.“I wish to clarify that neither I, nor the Ministry of Home Affairs had, or have any access to any of the tapes concerning the interception of Ms. Radia's telephones,” Mr. Pillai said...

The Union government on Friday strongly defended the interception of Niira Radia's telephones, saying that this was done because of a probe into complaints alleging that she "as an agent of foreign intelligence agencies" and was "indulging in anti-national activities." A joint affidavit filed by ministries of home and Finance as well as the Income Tax department said, "A complaint was received by the Finance minister dated November 16, 2007, inter...

The Unique Identification Authority of India is already seeing a massive explosion for bank accounts among people enrolling for Aadhaar or the unique IDs issued by the authority, its chairman Nandan Nilekani said. Some 80% of people enrolling for the IDs want bank accounts, he said at a lecture here organised by the Indian Institute of Banking & Finance on Thursday. “If we are able to provide every such person with...

An expert group appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to examine recommendations of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council on a draft food security law will present its findings by December-end. The NAC, which steers the UPA government’s social agenda, had drafted a framework for the Food Security Bill, which was presented before the expert group on November 26.“We are looking at the implications of the proposed provisions of the food...