A note on ‘Dalit and Adivasi Budget Analysis 2019-20’ by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR): The Budget 2019 has grossly neglected Dalit and Adivasi population.The projections of a historical increase in allocations for SC’s at 35.6% and 28% for ST’s this year hides several harsh realities which communities have to deal with … More Budget 2019-20: Schemes for SC-ST would fail to create durable assets, sustainable livelihoods

Excerpts from the chapter “Caught in the Act: Assessing the Functioning of Commercial Courts in Delhi” by Kruthika Jerome in the report “Doing Business in Delhi: A Study of Initiated and Uninitiated Regulatory Reforms”, published by the Centre for Civil Society, a Delhi-based public policy: For an effective market-based economy, there must be legal systems … More Ease of doing business? High Court of Delhi has no dedicated time for commercial disputes

Excerpts from the note “An Economic Strategy for India”*, authored, among others, by Raghuram Rajan, former Governor, Reserve Bank of India: Careful but quick policy reforms are needed for the sectors/areas that are stressed. These include agriculture, infrastructure (including power), exports and banking.  There are common themes in any revival. Typically, we need to redeploy … More There is need to guard against temptation to focus on specifics of World Bank measures

Excerpts from the Preface to the book “The Black Economy in India: Transition to the Grey Political Economy”, by Prof Kamal Nayan Kabra, published by Aakar Books* The updated version of “The Black Economy in India: Problems and Policies”, Delhi, (1982), under the title “The Black Economy in India: Transition to the Grey Political Economy”, … More Black money menace closely associated with growth story in the form of mal-development

By Jagannath Adhikari* China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has ambitions to reshape the global economy by connecting more than 60 countries across Asia, Europe and Africa through trade and infrastructure projects. All told, it’s envisioned that nearly two-thirds of the world’s population will in some way be connected through BRI projects in the future. … More Will an ambitious Chinese-built rail line through the Himalayas lead to a debt trap for Nepal?

By Ashish Kajla* Banks act as financial intermediaries between depositors and borrowers. It is the public money, deposited in the form of term deposit (fixed deposits) and time deposit (saving & current accounts) which banks use for lending to borrowers. Since public money is important for the banking sector as a whole, banks also have a … More Bank charges imposed on saving accounts hurt the poor most who have hesitantly adopted them

By Moin Qazi It is true that banks can play an important role in the financial transformation of   low-income communities, but sustainability should never be overlooked .in their excitement to oblige their constituencies, politicians run financially amok and literally plunder banks for their vote blocks. This was precisely the reason why India’s post nationalization mass … More Social banking: Make-believe revolution that was to lead to serious financial crisis in years to come