..FINANCIAL INCLUSION..

Financial inclusion
Financial inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to sectionsof disadvantaged and low income segments of society. Unrestrained access to public goods and services is the sinequa non of an open and efficient society. It is argued that as banking services are in the nature of public good, it is essential that availabilityof banking and payment services to the entire population without discrimination is the prime objective of public policy. Theterm "financial inclusion" has gained importance since the early 2000s, and is a result of findings about financial exclusion and its direct correlation to poverty. Financial inclusion is now a common objective for many central banks among the developing nations.
The Reserve Bank of India hasset up a commission (Khan Commission) in 2004 to look into financial inclusion and the recommendations of the commission were incorporated into the mid-term review of the policy (2005–06). In the report RBI exhorted the bankswith a view of achieving greater financial inclusion to make available a basic"no-frills" banking account. InIndia, Financial Inclusion first featured in 2005, when it was introduced, that, too, from a pilot project in UT of Pondicherry, by K C Chakraborthy, the chairman of Indian Bank. Mangalam Village became the first village in India where all households were provided banking facilities. In addition to this KYC (Know your Customer) norms were relaxed for people intending to open accounts with annual deposits of less than Rs. 50,000. General Credit Cards (GCC) were issued to the poor and the disadvantaged with a view to help them access easy credit. In January 2006, the Reserve Bank permitted commercial banks to make use of the services of non-governmental organizations (NGOs/SHGs), micro-finance institutions and other civil society organizations as intermediaries for providing financial and banking services.

These intermediaries could be used as business facilitators (BF) orbusiness correspondents (BC) by commercial banks. The bank asked the commercial banks in different regions to start a 100% financial inclusion campaign on a pilot basis. As a result of the campaign states or U.T.s like Pondicherry , Himachal Pradesh and Kerala have announced 100% financial inclusion in all their districts. Reserve Bank of India’s visionfor 2020 is to open nearly 600million new customers' accounts and service them through a variety of channels by leveraging on IT. However, illiteracy and the low income savings and lack of bank branches in rural areas continue to be a road block to financial inclusion in many states. Apart from this there are certain in Current model which is followed. There is inadequate legal and financial structure. India, being a mostly agrarian economy, hardly has schemeswhich lend for agriculture. Along with microfinance we need to focus on

..Inclusive growth..

Inclusive growth as the literal meaning of the two words refers to both the pace and the pattern of the economic growth. The literature on the subject draws fine distinction between direct income redistribution or shared growth and inclusive growth. The inclusive growth approach takes a longer term perspective as the focus is on productive employment rather than on direct income redistribution, as a means of increasing incomes for excluded groups. Inclusive growth is, therefore, supposed to be inherently sustainable as distinct from income distribution schemes which canin the short run reduce the disparities, between the poorest and the rest, which may have arisen on account of policies intended to jumpstart growth. While income distribution schemes can allow people, to benefit from economic growth in the short run, inclusive growth allows people to “contribute to and benefit from economic growth”.
The ‘inclusive growth’ as a strategy of economic development received attention owing to a rising concern that the benefits of economic growth have not been equitably shared. Growth is inclusive when it creates economic opportunities along with ensuring equal access to them. Apart from addressing the issue of inequality, the inclusive growth may also make the poverty reduction efforts more effective by explicitly creating productive economic opportunities for the poor and vulnerable sections ofthe society. The inclusive growth by encompassing the hitherto excluded population can bring in several other benefits as well to the economy. The concept “Inclusion” should be seen as a process of including the excluded as agents whose participation is essential in the very design of the development process, and not simply as welfare targets of development programmes (Planning Commission, 2007).

Economics and climate change

Economics and climate change
What role should economists then play in the fight against climate change? As with all other economic problems, economists have formed and advocated normative economicpolicies to mitigate the effects of climate change, which have generated great debate. It is important to understand these debates and decide on the most effective measures. In future, economic analysis should hopefully yield new estimates of mitigation benefits and improve our understanding of costs in the presence of various market distortions. It should also create better tools for making policy choices under uncertain conditions, and alternate mechanisms for good environmental policy. A better and more comprehensive understanding of the economics of climate change would greatly enhance the formulation and implementation of a range of innovative climate change policies at domestic and international levels.
Conclusion The effects of climate change will have far reaching impacts on our lives, and there is no doubt that it is an uphill task to resolve this global issue. While the debate over the economics of climate change remains heated and there are no clear answers as to the best means of mitigating the effects of climate change, it is nevertheless a positive sign that citizens and countries around the world recognise theseverity of the problem of climate change. Indeed, many countries have pledged to join the fight against global warming by reducing their greenhouse emissions and adopting environmentally friendly policies, including China, one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases.
On a micro level, firms and consumers have also rallied toward recognised the importance of building a sustainable environment for our future. Firms have adopted cleaner technology while consumers have displayed greater environmental awareness and activism, such as by switching to more fuel efficient cars. Governments have also recognised the importance of building a sustainable blueprint for the future. International agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol also show the urgent need for global cooperation. It is hoped that the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen this December would lead to a newinternational agreement on climate change, as the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Will our actions today translate intoa cleaner and greener future? Perhaps only posterity can tell. Nevertheless, it is crucial to take action now to create a better environment for ourselves and future generations.

Debate -DCs and LDCs..Global Warming

There is debate over the contributions of developed (DCs) versus that of less developed countries (LDCs). While DCs argue that LDCs should reduce their emissions, LDCs counter that since DCs had first emitted pollutions, and that a certain amount of pollution is needed for economic growth. Limiting big polluters in some countries but not others will diminish theimpacts of caps as firms may relocate existing and new production of CO2-emitting industries to countries with no limits. This is known as carbon leakage, and may lead to tradeanarchy. Carbon Taxes An alternative to the cap and trade system is the levying of carbon taxes. Carbon taxes serve two functions. First, theypunish bad behaviour by making polluters bear the full costs of their actions. Second, they reward environmentally friendly practices, thus encouraging a shift toward such practices. Elementary economics tells us that any negative externalities should be taxed to align private incentives with social costs and benefits and to serve as a disincentive to future bad behaviour. Thus, if the government imposed a tax on carbon-based products, firms would have an incentive to shift their production away from pollution and the emission of carbon (which are negative externalities) should be taxed. Furthermore, firms and consumers would have an incentive to shift their production and consumption toward environmentally-friendly practices. Advocates ofcarbon taxes include economists such as Greg Mankiw, Gary Becker and Alan Greenspan. They have argued that carbon taxes raise large revenues which governments can use to reduce other unpopular and more distorting taxes, or finance spending programs.
However, carbon taxes have never been used internationally, that they are politically difficult to establish because consumers and businesses dislike taxes, and that they do not establish an actual firm limit on emissions. Cap and Trade versus Carbon Taxes While both cap and trade and carbon taxes aim to reduce harmful emissions, a carbon tax avoids the process of allocating allowances to countries internationally and among companies domestically. Carbon markets are susceptible to corruption, especially in LDCs, where legal frameworks are not well established. Even in DCs, politics may get in the way of good policy as big businesses and special interest groups may lobby to obtain a larger carbon credit. A carbon tax, on the other hand, offers less opportunity for corruption because it does not create artificial scarcities and monopolies.
On the other hand, cap and trade allows governments to control the quantity of emissions produced, thus providing certainty. Some havesuggested auctioning carbon permits. This solves the problem of how to allocate carbon credits as firms bid for the price they are willing to pay to pollute, thus reflecting the price that firms place on pollution. However, this is a relatively new idea, and has not been widely implemented yet. For now, it is unclear which is a better system, though there is a slight preference among economists for the use of carbon taxes. Nevertheless, regardless of which policy is implemented, the details of the policy, such as its costs and benefits, valuation of costs, social and political considerations and thenature of the industry, must be carefully examined.

However, carbon taxes have never been used internationally, that they are politically difficult to establish because consumers and businesses dislike taxes, and that they do not establish an actual firm limit on emissions. Cap and Trade versus Carbon Taxes While both cap and trade and carbon taxes aim to reduce harmful emissions, a carbon tax avoids the process of allocating allowances to countries internationally and among companies domestically. Carbon markets are susceptible to corruption, especially in LDCs, where legal frameworks are not well established. Even in DCs, politics may get in the way of good policy as big businesses and special interest groups may lobby to obtain a larger carbon credit. A carbon tax, on the other hand, offers less opportunity for corruption because it does not create artificial scarcities and monopolies.
On the other hand, cap and trade allows governments to control the quantity of emissions produced, thus providing certainty. Some havesuggested auctioning carbon permits. This solves the problem of how to allocate carbon credits as firms bid for the price they are willing to pay to pollute, thus reflecting the price that firms place on pollution. However, this is a relatively new idea, and has not been widely implemented yet. For now, it is unclear which is a better system, though there is a slight preference among economists for the use of carbon taxes. Nevertheless, regardless of which policy is implemented, the details of the policy, such as its costs and benefits, valuation of costs, social and political considerations and thenature of the industry, must be carefully examined.

..GLOBAL WARMING..

The essential problem of climate change is that too much carbon and greenhouse gases are being emitted into the atmosphere, thus raising world temperatures and leading to a host of other problems such as poor health. For economists, climate changeis a classic problem of market failure, as the negative externalities of pollution and the emission of carbon (such aspoor health and potential natural disasters) are not borneby individuals and firms. While consumers receive the full private benefit of driving their cars and firms receive the full benefit of producing products that emit pollutants in the process of doing so, they do notbear the full social costs of the increased pollution. This is because they have no economic incentive to act in ways that minimise pollution. What should we do? Economists have devised policies to solve the problem ofclimate change. The aims of economic policies to combat climate change are straightforward: they should create incentives for future good behaviour (such as developing clean technology) and punish bad behaviour (such as over-polluting or over-consuming) by enabling consumers and producers to realise and bear the full costs of their actions. That is, policiesshould discourage harmful behaviour by raising the cost of doing so. Policies should send clear messages to the public about the likely costs and benefits of climate change control.
In current economic debate, two key policies stand as the most effective curbs on pollution by firms: the cap and trade system and carbon taxes. Cap and Trade In a Cap and Trade system, a governing body (usually the government) “caps” emissions of pollutants and then lets firms “trade” permits that allow them to pollute within those limits. In aglobal context, countries set a limit on how much carbon dioxide firms can emit and then allocate permits to them. The permits are bought and sold in an open market. The economic rationale behind this system is that greenhouse gases and carbon are scarce.
This system has received support from government, business and environmentalist.This is because they set firm limits on actual emissions, thusenabling governments to control and determine the levelof emissions. In addition, the flexibility of carbon markets enables businesses to figure out the least expensive way to reduce overall emissions.
The concept of Cap and Trade isnot mere academic theory, as some nations have already implemented such a system. For instance, under the Kyoto Protocol, targets are set for nations to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is achieved through three mechanisms: emissions trading(similar to Cap and Trade), Clean development mechanism(CDM) and Joint implementation (JI). The emissions trading system has been implemented by the European Union, which has embarked on an Emission Trading System (EU ETS), the largest multi-national, emissions trading scheme in the world. Under this scheme, firms may trade allowances directly with each other, or may buy or sell via a broker, bank or other allowance market intermediary.
In addition, the United States currently maintains a rather successful cap-and-trade market in sulphur dioxide permits.

..PURE AND MIXED STRATEGY..GAME THEORY..

A pure strategy provides a complete definition of how a player will play a game. In particular, it determines the move a player will make for any situation he or she could face. A player's strategy set is the set of pure strategies available to that player.
A mixed strategy is an assignment of a probability to each pure strategy. This allows for a player to randomly select a pure strategy. Since probabilities are continuous, there are infinitely many mixed strategies available to a player, even if their strategy set is finite.
Of course, one can regard a pure strategy as a degenerate case of a mixed strategy, in which that particular pure strategy is selected with probability 1 and every other strategy with probability 0 .
A totally mixed strategy is a mixed strategy in which the player assigns a strictly positive probability to every pure strategy. (Totally mixed strategies are important for equilibrium refinement such as trembling hand perfect equilibrium .)
Mixed strategy Illustration
A B
A 1, 1 0, 0
B 0, 0 1, 1
Pure coordination game
Consider the payoff matrix pictured to the right (known as a coordination game ). Here one player chooses the row and the other chooses a column. The row player receives the first payoff, the column player the second. If row opts to play A with probability 1(i.e. play A for sure), then he is said to be playing a pure strategy. If column opts to flip a coin and play A if the coinlands heads and B if the coin lands tails, then she is said to be playing a mixed strategy, and not a pure strategy.
Significance...
In his famous paper, John Forbes Nash proved that there is an equilibrium for every finite game. One can divide Nash equilibria into two types. Pure strategy Nash equilibria are Nash equilibria where all players are playing pure strategies. Mixed strategy Nash equilibria are equilibria where at least one player is playing a mixed strategy. While Nash proved that every finite game has a Nash equilibrium, not all have pure strategy Nash equilibria. Foran example of a game that does not have a Nash equilibrium in pure strategies, see Matching pennies . However, many games do have pure strategy Nash equilibria (e.g. the Coordination game , the Prisoner's dilemma , the Stag hunt ). Further, games can have both pure strategy and mixed strategy equilibria.

.. purposive sample..

A purposive sample is a sample selected in a deliberative and non-random fashion to achieve a certain goal. In a focus group, for example, you may want to consciously seek out respondents at both ends of a spectrum (as well as some in the middle) to insure that all viewpoints are adequately represented. You might also preferentially recruit subjects who have the best knowledgeand experience in an area.
In addition to focus group studies, purposive samples are often used in pilot studies. A purposive sample share the same weaknesses as a convenience sample and you will have difficulty making strong quantitative inferences from such a sample.

productivity of Indian Agriculture ...2011

click the link below
Productivity of Agriculture --Trends and Issues..2011

Migration..India..

...migration....
Some interesting insights on migration provided by CENSUSof INDIA 2001:
*. During the reporting period, 30% reported as migrants by place of birth
*. During the last decade (1991-2001), the number of migrants in India (excluding J&K) rose by 32.9%, the total number of migrants by place of last residence in India (excluding J&K) grew by 34.7% during 1991-2001.
*. High growth (53.6%) among interstate migrants was also observed.
*. Total migrants by last residence (0-9 yrs) accounted to 98.3 million
*. 43.8% moved due to marriage, 21.0% moved with their households, 14.7% migrated due to work, 6.7% moved after their birth, 3% for educational purposes, 1.2% for business and 9.7% specified other reasons.
*. About 42.4 million migrants out of total 65.4 million female migrants cited marriage as the reason for migration. Among males the most important reason for migration was ‘Work/Employment’, 12.3 million out of 32.8 million total male migrants migrated due to this reason.
*. During the decade, out of the urban growth of 30.3 per cent, 6.6 per cent is accountedfor by migration to urban areas.
*. If one takes away those migrants who moved due to marriage, the total number ofmigrants falls from 98.3 million to 55.2 million. Total number of migrants among males and females were 32.2 million and 22.9 million respectively.
Causes and Trends in Migration
India owing to its scope and scale witnesses all kinds of migration. A few major causes and / or trends observed in the course of migration are listed below:
*. Academically and technically qualified experts emigrating to industrialized countries (Nearly 1.25 million Indians emigrated to the US, Canada, UK and Australia between 1950 and 2000)
*. Unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labourers migrating to Middle East countries for undertaking blue collar jobs. (More than 3 million Indian migrants live in Gulf countries, with most of them coming from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab).
*. Students migrating to USA, UK, Australia and other European countries to pursue higher education
*. Internal displacement owing to political causes, including secessionist movements; identity-based autonomy movements; local violence, such as caste disputes and riots fuelled by religious fundamentalism and environment and development induced displacement. While the World Refugee Survey puts the total number of InternallyDisplaced Persons in India at 507,000, the Indian Social Institute in Delhi puts the figure at 21.3 million in its global survey of IDPs. Environmental changes and natural disasters such as floods and droughts have been reasons for displacement, affecting the populations of both flood-prone areas and excessively dry regions.
*. Advanced technologies in the agro and fishing sector have grossly depleted natural resources thus forcing most male members in the agro and fishing communities to migrate. Such migrant male members seek unprotected sexual favours and on the other hand, the women that they have left behind in their villages fall easy prey to traffickers, thus creating the supply and demand factors that fuel both trafficking and the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Pitfalls..
In the case of most intra-state and inter-state unskilled and semi-skilled migrants, migrant labourers run high risks of exploitation for they are exposed to large uncertainties and lack access to information and knowledge, thus making it very difficult for them to switch jobs in case of dissatisfaction with the current employer. Because of their option-less situation, these labourers lack bargaining power and thereby fail to negotiate reasonable pay scales and fair working conditions with the contractors.
*. Most migrants live in open spaces, make shift shelters or illegal settlements, which lack the basic infrastructure and access to civic amenities. They have no local ration cards which can provide themtheir food at subsidized rates through the Public Distribution system. They are highly prone to occupational health hazards and vulnerable to epidemics including HIV/AIDS.
*. Since the migrants are mobile, their children have nocrèche facilities or access to schooling. They do not come under the purview of either the local government or the NGO PROGRAMMES for they do not belong to that particular region. So citing the problem of monitoring, most agencies leave them outside the scope of development intervention.
*. In India, labour migrants are largely found in the developed states, the traditional migrant-receiving states, typically, coming from underdeveloped regions of the country and being comprised primarily of the most marginalized sectors of society, namely the Tribals and the Scheduled Castes (SCs). These migrants are entirely without legal protection or social security. They are “invisible”, and are not acknowledged and are denied access even to basic amenities in most of the cases. They have no identity in the places where they live and no voice in the places they have left behind.
Migration offers a very fertileground for traffickers. In India, migrants who leave their homes in search for better employment opportunities and marital prospects, fall easy preys to traffickers for want of adequate information. India performs all the three roles ofbeing a country of origin, transit and destination in the process of trafficking.

Tax Incidence

'Tax Incidence'
An economic term for the division of a tax burden between buyers and sellers. Tax incidence is related to the price elasticity of supply and demand. When supply is more elastic than demand, the tax burden falls on the buyers. If demand is more elastic than supply, producers will bear the cost of the tax.

..ZBB..

ZBB..
A method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. Zero-based budgeting starts from a "zero base" and every function within an organization is analyzed for itsneeds and costs. Budgets are then built around what is needed for the upcoming period, regardless of whether the budget is higher or lower than the previous one.
ZBB allows top-level strategic goals to be implemented into the budgeting process by tying them to specific functional areas of the organization, where costs can be first grouped, then measured against previous results and current expectations.
Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB)' Because of its detail-oriented nature, zero-based budgeting may be a rolling process done over several years, with only a few functional areas reviewedat a time by managers or groupleadership.
Zero-based budgeting can lower costs by avoiding blanket increases or decreases to a prior period's budget. It is, however, a time-consuming process that takes much longer than traditional, cost-based budgeting. The practice also favors areas that achieve direct revenues or production; their contributions are more easily justified than in departments such as client service and research and development.

Cheap Money

The money avaialble at low interest rates is called cheap money. During the recession times thelow rates of interest rates are maintained. This is primariliy done to stimulate the investments.

MSME

..Two classes of enterprise –manufacturing and service are recognized by the MSME Act of 2006. The MSMED Act 2006 provides the legal framework for recognizing the concept of enterprise, facilitating its development and enhancing its competitiveness. These can bedefined as micro, small and medium depending upon their investment levels. A manufacturing enterprise is termed as micro small and medium based upon its investment in plant and machinery – up to Rs. 25 Lakh for Micro, Rs. 25 lakh to Rs. 5 crore for small and Rs. 5 crore to Rs. 10 crore for Medium Enterprise. For a service enterprise, an investment in equipment up to Rs. 10 Lakh qualifies as micro, Rs. 10 Lakh to 2 Crore as Small and Rs. 2 Crore to 5 crore as medium.

SKEWFLATION

Skewflation refers to inflation insome commodities , deflation in others. India’s Economic survey 2010-11 says:  The year 2010-11 has been a year of more than one such skewflationary episode. At the beginning of the calendar year 2010 and even in the firstmonths of the fiscal year 2010-11 inflation was high forfood grains, sugar, and pulses. During the course of the year, inflation in these commoditiesstabilized, but by November there was another spike in prices of another set of commodities, led by onions, cabbage, milk, and a couple of other products.