By P Sainath* On November 25, 1949, after Ambedkar handed over the draft constitution to members of the Constituted Assembly, he said, “I am handing over this fine document to you in some trepidation. We have entered the world of paradoxes. In politics there is democracy, in society and economy there is no democracy at … More Social inequalities have existed in India for long; to this we have introduced economic inequalities

By Moin Qazi* Finance is the glue that holds all pieces of our life together. Ideal financial societies are those which provide safe and convenient ways of managing these simple monetary affairs. This philosophy is known as financial inclusion. It is providing   financial tools to people —tools that people can afford, that are safe and … More Financial literacy in India is still not priority, 76% of adults do not understand basic concepts

By V Santhakumar* Politicians (of all kind) are programmed to promise a drastic change in the status of their country during their term in governments. This is true for economic advisors, industrial lobbies and other reform advocates. Recommendations of magic pills would enhance their acceptance in politics and media. However I am going to outline … More India’s progress is likely to be slow: Fundamental barriers hinder socio-economic progress

Text of the online petition, signed by nearly 2 lakh people, to Dr Urjit Patel, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, on unfair treatment of bank customers: We, a group of bank consumers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are disturbed at the unfair treatment that bank customers suffer in the form of frequent, arbitrary and one-sided increase … More Indian banks cannot have one-sided terms and conditions in their agreements with consumers

By Venkatesh Nayak* The demonetisation of currency notes of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 denomination that the Government announced on 8 November, 2016 and the subsequent remonetisation of the economy has affected almost every person living in India. It came as a revelation when the media reported that many people in neighbouring Nepal were also … More DeMon to ReMon: Government claims successful exercise without revealing details under RTI

Excerpts from the Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament on January 31, 2017: There remains a niggling sense that India is not quite what it appears to be – that, despite all the data, it is not yet following the standard development model. In what ways is India different? Three lingering features capture the doubt that … More India’s hesitancy to embrace the private sector and to unambiguously protect property rights