FINANCIAL INCLUSION

The term " FINANCIAL INCLUSION " was added in the budget 2008-09 on the recommendation of the central committee on financial inclusion.It refers to better access of the larger sections of the population to the vast organized and structured financial market of the country and ensuring availability of timely and adequate credit.In other words, it is extension of banking to the less privileged sections of the society.

Though regional rural banks and cooperative banks are larger in number in the rural areas, their contribution in total banking services is meager, 9% and 3% of the total as compared to the huge 78% of the commercial banks.Financial inclusion seeks to make corrections in such anomalies.

The financial inclusion policy of the government includes two fold policy- first to encourage the RRBs and cooperative banks to enroll more rural and semi urban households as their customers and to appoint retired bank officials and other ex servicemen to act as credit counselors or business facilitators.

This is a wonderful step in many ways.Firstly it will save the rural people from the clutches of the unscrupulous money lenders and intermediaries and help them to take benefits of the financial progress of the country.Secondly, this will boost up the overall financial health of the country as most of the population the country stll live in villages.

Suggested strategies:

• Setting up a financial inclusion task force.
• Setting up a Financial Inclusion fund like that of UK.
• Better monitoring system to keep a vigil on the banking activities in the rural areas.
• Creation of better business opportunities in the rural areas to help the rural people to utilize the credit available in better ways.
• India must learn from the mistake of the US financial system that financial inclusion policy if not guided by a pragmatic approach may cause irreversible damage to the economic structure of the nation.
  

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial Intelligence is the intelligence of machines and it also refers to the section of science which seeks to create it.It is also known as synthetic intelligence or computational intelligence.The term was first coined by John McCarthy in 1956.He described it as " the science and engineering of creating intelligent machines". But AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable.

The basic objective of this section of science is to create machines capable of thinking. Such machines will posses qualities like knowledge,planning, communication,reasoning,perception apart from the general ability to move and manipulate objects.Thus it will create a bridge between computer science and Linguistics,Psychology,logic,cognitive science and economics.In terms of moving and manipulating objects this field is very closely related to robotics.

It is widely being used in software development, game development especially chess,information analysis,speech recognition etc.However as there is no concrete definition of intelligence till now, the grading of AI or the success of it, is difficult to judge.

The following site may be useful for knowing more on the topic
http://library.thinkquest.org/2705/

PREVIOUS YEARS' QUESTION PAPERS

Hi folks,

I have just uploaded a booklet where you will find the links to all the previous year question papers for almost all the subjects.Just click on the subject name and you will be redirected to the page where you will find the question papers.I am thankful to the site www.examrace.com for doing such a great work.Keep up the good work guys.

THE LINK

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10717635/IAS-MAIN-PREVIOUS-YEAR-QUESTION-PAPERS
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19200267/-IAS-Previous-Year-Papers-Mains

Regards

SAM DIES, SPIRIT REMAINS

Samantha, the koala which drew the attention of the entire world after the video and photographs showing a firefighter named Davis Tree rescuing her from the deadly bush fire that destroyed huge areas and killed hundreds of human beings and millions of animals apart from huge property losses in the Victoria province of Australia six months ago was published in the media, finally succumbed to death a few days back.

Her death moved the international communities.And everyone aware of the incidence must have shed at least a drop of tear for the loss of the little animal which became synonymous with courage, compassion and agony.The 4-year-old koala had developed the cysts associated with urogenital chlamydiosis, which affects more than 50 percent of Australia's koala population.Although it fought bravely against second degree burns, the ovarian cysts finally defeated her in the battle for life which, thanks to excellent work done by the media, has now become an inspiration to millions all over the world.The loss was so heavy that even the Prime Minister of Australia lamented on her death with moist eyes and a choked voice.

Question is, why the death of this little animal has become such a widely published news? Two reasons, first: Davis Tree who saved her life set an example of humanity by providing the cute animal bottles of water and rescuing her from the danger of being perished in the bush fire.The picture along with this article conveys the message.Isn't it a wonderful act of apologizing to the animal world? Secondly, the bush fire which wrecked havoc on Victoria province shows how incapable we still are in managing disasters.Environmentalists in Australia have hinted that may be after the calamity, many of the rare species of the province have now become extinct.Add to it the heavy toll of human lives and property losses.

Last but not the least the little Koala in her six month long battle for life has taught us how to fight against the odds.Even second degree burns could not have stopped the unrelenting spirit of the little animal.She may be gone but her death and popular sympathy associated with that will now urge the human communities to become more responsible, more dutiful and more compassionate.Sam, your life will not go in vain.

E -BOOK ON INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND INSTITUTIONS

Dear Friends,

A collection of the articles on International affairs and Institutions,penned by me and others in this blog has been published in scibd.com and docstoc.com

You can read or download it from

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10717705/INTERNATIONAL-AFFAIRS-pdf
http://www.scribd.com/doc/18697744/International-Affairs-Institutions

Thanks

E-BOOK ON INDIAN ECONOMY

Hi friends,

I have uploaded an e-book on Indian economy in scribd.com and docstoc.com. All the materials on economy so far published in my blog have been compiled in the book.You can read or download it from

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10717659/INDIAN-ECONOMY
http://www.scribd.com/doc/18514598/INDIAN-ECONOMY

Hope it goes well with you.Thanks

CREDIT AVAILABILITY FOR AGRICULTURE IN INDIA

Availability of credit has been the main hindrance in development of agriculture in India.The banking system is still hesitant on various grounds to purvey credit to the small and marginal farmers.Less availability of credits makes it difficult to adopt modern techniques which in turn renders agriculture unremunerative and land unprofitable.Despite government policy of financial inclusion,most of the farmers in India are still deprived of adequate and timely availability of credit.

Though there has been instruction to the domestic banks to reserve 40% of the Net Bank Credit for the priority sector lending and 18% out of that amount for agriculture by RBI,banks over the years have failed in achieving the target. The Rural Infrastructure Development Fund was set up in 1996 to solve the credit availability crisis.The Commercial Banks make contributions to the fund for failing to achieve their target for Priority Sector Lending.The Kisan Credit Card scheme launched in 1998-99 however was a laudable effort by the government to make credit available at farmers' doorstep.The scheme facilitated short term loan availability for seasonal agricultural operations and other agricultural inputs.In addition to that Personal Accident Insurance of Rs 50,000/ against annual premium of just Rs 15/ is being offered along with the cards.So far the performance of Cooperative banks has been commendable in issuing credit cards whereas commercial banks lag behind their targets.The performance of the Regional Rural Banks has been below par.Updation of land records and sensitisation of bank staff through training programmes are needed to add to the spread of the scheme.

However there were crying needs for loans for investment and working capital requirements for the farmers.To take care of the need Swarojgar Credit Card Scheme was launched in 2003.It must be noted that Non-Institutional credits which accounted for more than 90% after the independence have decreased considerably in the past 50 years and presently accounts for little more than 30% of the total agricultural credits.Moreover,till the liberalisation of economy started, cooperative banks were leading in credit delivery.But past one and a half decades has seen drastic change of the scenario with the commercial banks now leading in credit delivery by handsome margin.Another aspect of credit delivery in India is the dominance of short term credit over long term ones.Present short term credits account for more than 65% of the total credits.The accessibility to institutional credits is much higher in Southern India than rest parts of India and Tamil Nadu leads the way.