As part of our series on Municipal Finance, this blog post discusses the present state of municipal finances by taking an in-depth look at municipal revenue and expenditure in India.

The previous post covered the process of “Suitability” in financial services. Here, we cover aspects of the legal and regulatory structure that will aid in establishing an effective Suitability regime in India.

Here are our picks: 1)Direct Cash Transfer Scheme – To be rolled-out from January 1, under this scheme government plans to provide subsidies and other benefits directly to the poor in cash rather than in the form of subsidies.

As the government plans to transfer 29 benefits (pensions, scholarships, fuel subsidies etc.) through the direct cash transfer scheme, we look at what research tells us about unconditional cash transfers.

This is the second post in the series of posts on the Municipal Finance Scenario in India. In this post, we discuss the functions devolved to ULBs as per the 74th Constitutional Amendment. We also discuss briefly the capabilities of ULBs to carry out these functions successfully.

There has been much discussion recently about the distorting nature of various indirect subsidies such as those being offered via price controls on fuel and fertiliser. Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-commentary/govt-needs-to-revisit-priority-sector-lending-policy-for-more-effective-financial-inclusion/articleshow/17685747.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

I recently had an opportunity to read an interesting book on farmer suicides in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra by Secretary Health Meeta Rajiv Lochan1 (meeta29 [at] hotmail.com) and Professor Rajiv Lochan2 (mrajivlochan [at] hotmail.com).

There has been a lot of stress on assessing a customer’s cash-flows before sanctioning a specific loan, for instance a home loan or a crop loan.

The previous post delineated the Indian context for finance and suitability as part of our Consumer Protection series. This post delves deeper into the conceptual discussions on suitability as the new paradigm for financial sector regulation in India.

This post takes off from where our article on the current status of Indian debt markets ended. The peculiar issue with the Indian corporate debt market is not that it faces challenges due to a lack of adequate infrastructure.