India’s new Micro Finance Bill

A comparison with Sri Lanka’s draft legislation

India’s Ministry of Finance has announced that it will be soon submitting the new ‘Microfinance Institution Development and Regulation (MID&R) Bill to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval and thereafter submit it to Parliament during Parliament’s Budget Session beginning in March 2012.

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Necklace of islands: A battle for influence

Unrest in the Maldives in a geopolitical context

The Islamic Republic of the Maldives is Sri Lanka’s close neighbour. Originally seagoing people from Sri Lanka’s west coast are said to have settled in the necklace of islands.

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Is golf an authorised military activity?

• Are the Indian Army’s golf courses illegal?                
• Sri Lanka’s fourth golf course opened by Air Force
   

India’s national auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), has reported to Parliament that the country’s Army has turned large tracts of State military property into illegal privately-run golf courses and leisure centres without paying rent to the Government of India, costing the exchequer billions of rupees in lost revenue.
The CAG reported that a privately-held company owned by Army officials ran nearly 100 golf courses on more than 8,000 acres of land owned by India’s Ministry of Defence, the largest Government land owner in India.

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Opposition dissident to popular democrat to autocratic tyrant

Many a politician, who started life as dissident in the opposition, championing the human and fundamental rights of the downtrodden and oppressed, has in time, evolved into a popular democratic leader and in short order, transformed into an autocratic tyrant, suppressing the basic rights of the people and consolidating the dictatorial rights of himself, his family, his political allies and those other sycophants who crowd around his throne singing a chorus of hosannas of praise.

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Polypropylene sacks versus plastic crates

Lack of participation in decision making

Top-down decision-making, centralisation of power and authority, lack of consultation with stakeholders, lack of accountability and the arrogance of political power are all factors which featured heavily in the socioeconomic environment of 2011 in Sri Lanka, mainly due to the lack of public consultation in the decision-making process.

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Are cheetu Illegal?

Rotating Savings and Credit Associations and the Finance Business Act No. 42 of 2011

Cheetu or Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (RoSCAs) are the world over a well-recognised method of savings and capital accumulation for the poor and marginalised.

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The military-industrial complex

President Eisenhower raised the alarm in 1961; its relevance today

‘But most shall he sing of Lanka
In the brave new days to come,
When the races all have blended
And the voice of strife is dumb,
When we leap to a single bugle,
March to a single drum.’
From ‘The Call of Lanka’,
by the Rev. W.S. Senior.

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The malnutrition time bomb

The critical 1,000 days from conception to 24 months

At a recent seminar held in Colombo in the premises of a leading policy research institute, a visiting foreign nutrition expert stated that the greatest danger for a country in having malnourished and anaemic women and children is that, in addition to the stunted growth, the brain development of babies in the crucial 1,000 days from conception to the child’s second birthday is irrevocably affected, resulting in a population which has serious limitations in intellectual ability and capacity.

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Micro finance: As India moves forward, Sri Lanka stagnates

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to create a separate category of Non Banking Financial Company – Micro Finance Institution (NBFC-MFI). This implements a recommendation of the Malegam Committee Report on Micro Finance in India, which was appointed subsequent to the MF crisis due to indebted farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh.

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Politics sans policies and principles

In democracies the world over, voters are facing a dilemma. They faithfully elect representatives to their legislatures, by voting for a set of policies the candidates solemnly place before them in the form of a manifesto.

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