Publication: Dvara Research

Continuing our blog series on Municipal Finance in India, in this two-part series we review the Report on Indian Urban Infrastructure and Services (2011).

The absence of secondary markets for corporate bonds in India is arguably the single most important reason for this market not seeing the kind of growth one would expect.

I was recently made aware of a fascinating speech2 on this topic given by Mr. V. K. Sharma (ED, RBI) in Mumbai on November 8th, 2012.

In India, rice and wheat comprise 70 percent of agricultural produce by area, but less than 25 percent by value.

his post is a continunation of our series of posts on Unemployment Support in India. The below post borrows heavily from Kamimura’s “Employment structure and Unemployment insurance in East Asia

The previous post covered the process of “Suitability” in financial services. Here, we cover aspects of the legal and regulatory structure that will aid in establishing an effective Suitability regime in India.

Here are our picks:
1)Direct Cash Transfer Scheme – To be rolled-out from January 1, under this scheme government plans to provide subsidies and other benefits directly to the poor in cash rather than in the form of subsidies.

As the government plans to transfer 29 benefits (pensions, scholarships, fuel subsidies etc.) through the direct cash transfer scheme, we look at what research tells us about unconditional cash transfers.

This is the second post in the series of posts on the Municipal Finance Scenario in India. In this post, we discuss the functions devolved to ULBs as per the 74th Constitutional Amendment. We also discuss briefly the capabilities of ULBs to carry out these functions successfully.

I recently had an opportunity to read an interesting book on farmer suicides in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra by Secretary Health Meeta Rajiv Lochan1 (meeta29 [at] hotmail.com) and Professor Rajiv Lochan2 (mrajivlochan [at] hotmail.com).