For every loan of Rs, 10,000 made through a Public Sector Bank rural branch, it costs them about Rs. 4150. The same number for a Private Sector Bank rural branch is about Rs. 3210. Little wonder then that rural branch expansion meets with so much resistance.

Continuing on our series on Unemployment Support In India, this post provides an overview of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (2005).

One of the standard instruments used to hedge against risk in a corporate debt market is the credit default swap or CDS instrument. A CDS is a credit derivative contract between two counterparties.

Keeping in mind the existing state of consumer protection measures in place for India, FSLRC has proposed a consumer protection framework for financial services, with the stated objectives being – to protect and further the interests of consumers of financial products and services; and to promote public awareness in financial matters.

A few colleagues and I recently travelled through Varanasi and Mirzapur in Eastern Uttar Pradesh visiting Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) in that region and their clients. I am delighted to report that this region, one of the poorest in India, is a hotbed of innovations.

This post is cross-posted from our Financing Small Cities blog. The post marks the beginning of a new blog series “Cities in Books", in which we will put across posts that reflect on how cities are portrayed in books and relate them from an urbanisation perspective.

As part of our blog series on the FSLRC report, we will be conducting a series of interviews with key experts to get their perspective on the report and its implications.

Central to the debate on access to finance for India, is the question of the most appropriate channel for credit delivery. Credit intermediation has traditionally been the stronghold of banks, driven by policy mandates and regulatory backing.

Why does consumer protection assume so much more significance in financial services, more so than perhaps for other services? Financial services don’t have fixed characteristics.

Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) was set up by the Indian Government in 2011 with a mandate to help rewrite and harmonize financial sector legislation, rules and regulations. On March 22nd 2013 it released its final report and the draft law.