Journal Press India^®

             At the outset, I thank our readers for their continued patronage of our endeavour, Pragati. The topics of the journal have been widening and there has been a greater reach in terms of the contributors over the past issues. This issue again brings an interesting amalgam of different and interesting aspects of the Indian economy.

The study entitled, ‘Does Microfinance through SHG Empower Women? A Study of Select SHGs in Bankura District, West Bengal?’ is a micro-study set in West Bengal. The author Ratul Saha, concludes that, women empowerment is still at a moderate level in West Bengal and there are many challenges in the way of women’s complete economic, political and social empowerment. Dr. Reema Sharma’s study on ‘Food Grains Storage: A Study of Central Warehousing Corporation of India’ is a commentary on the state of storage capacity in India. The study reveals that there has been no significant increase in the storage capacity as compared to increase in the procurement of food grains.

            ‘Crop Diversification and Land Productivity in Odisha: Role of Rural Infrastructure’, by Dr. Chittaranjan Nayak, examines the role of rural infrastructure, and some other factors like seed, fertilizer, marketable surplus and rural credit in crop diversification and land productivity in an eastern Indian state, Odisha.. The study also observes persistence of regional divide in infrastructure, which may be considered as a major concern having wider implications. On a different note, Prof. Vibhuti Patel has researched on ‘Livelihood, Employment and Skills for Young Women in Urban India’. She concludes that the policies should be geared towards supporting adolescent girls for building skills such as life skills and vocational skills, and for having savings independent of their families, in order that they can become economically independent.

           Dr. Satya Narayan Misra and Sanjaya Kumar Ghadaiwrite about ‘Income Inequality, Ideology and Indifference of our Times’. The paper echoes the concerns expressed in the World Economic Forum and calls for elimination of extreme inequality as a national goal, reducing Palma Ratio as the ninth Millennium Development Goal and eschewing crony capitalism. An empirical paper by Suvojit Lahiri Chakravarty, studies ‘Monetary Transmission in India’. It employs a series of VAR models to gain insight into how a change in the policy rate affects output and the price level. The results indicate the importance of the interest channel, credit channel and the asset price channel.

            As always, Pragati aims at a wide coverage of issues of concern to the Indian economy. Of course, the levels of papers vary and the empirical rigor also varies. One of the goals of this journal has been inter-disciplinarity which seems to be inching forward.  

            Wishing the readers a Happy New Year!!!

Prof. K. V. Bhanu Murthy

Editor-in-Chief