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Nilakantha Rath

Economic Origin of Regional and Caste Parties

Vol - XLVII No. 30, July 28, 2012 | Nilakantha Rath

Political scientists have proffered many reasons for the decline of the Congress and the rise of regional/caste parties, but one set of reasons that has been overlooked has to do with the very nature of planning from the Second Plan onwards under which the provision of basic services was neglected.

Measurement of Poverty: In Retrospect and Prospect

Vol - XLVI No. 42, October 15, 2011 | Nilakantha Rath

Attempts to measure poverty in India date back to pre- Independence, but it was only from the late 1950s onwards that a systematic effort has been made to define the poverty line and then estimate the population of the poor. A survey of the evolution of the poverty line with a focus on the recommendations of two important committees - the 1993 Lakdawala Committee and the 2010 Tendulkar Committee - which effected important changes in the measurement process.

Implications of the Loan Waiver for Rural Credit Institutions

Vol - XLIII No. 24, June 14, 2008 | Nilakantha Rath

The loan waiver will lighten the debt burden of the farmers. But in the long term this will adversely affect the rural credit institutions that extend loans to farmers. A discussion of the likely fallout.

Microfinance Regulation Bill: A Rejoinder

Vol - XLIII No. 19, May 10, 2008 | Nilakantha Rath


Microfinance Regulation Bill: A Rejoinder Nilakantha Rath It is inappropriate to make trusts or registered societies or cooperative credit societies function as wholesalers in a regime of microfinance institutions. It is better to provide the self-help groups and their federations with statutory status under a liberal cooperative law. This would be the proper approach to extension of credit to such elements in the rural society.

On the Microfinance Regulation Bill 2007

Vol - XLII No. 37, September 15, 2007 | Nilakantha Rath

The Microfinance Regulation Bill 2007, which seeks to regulate trusts and societies that help or promote self-help groups, is completely unnecessary since it does not address the needs of the SHGs. Legislation that enables these groups to register as cooperatives and borrow from banks or helps them to form private limited companies under the Company (Amendment) Act 2002 to facilitate borrowing from commercial banks would be more helpful.

Revival of Cooperatives

Vol - XL No. 43, October 22, 2005 | Nilakantha Rath

A critique of the Vaidyanathan Committee report on revival of cooperative credit institutions, which has made wide-ranging recommendations for an overhaul of this sector.

Twelfth Finance Commission and Minimum Needs

Vol - XXXIX No. 26, June 26, 2004 | Nilakantha Rath

The Twelfth Finance Commission should provide for grants-in-aid for states to ensure universalisation of basic social services within a certain time frame. It should also determine how many such needs can be taken up for grants-in-aid at a time and how much aid can be provided for each objective in a year.

Linking Rivers: Some Elementary Arithmetic

Vol - XXXVIII No. 29, July 19, 2003 | Nilakantha Rath

On the basis of the scanty factual information that has been made available and a few assumptions, it is possible to attempt some elementary arithmetic about the cost per unit of water and per watt of power separately for the three components â?? the Peninsular, the Himalayan and the Hydroelectric - of the project to link the country's rivers. The results make one despair that instead of doing the first things that are crying out to be done first in regard to irrigation, people are being fed this pie-in-the-sky.