Journal Press India^®

It is my pleasure to present another issue of PRAGATI to our readers that adds to the discussion on important areas of the Indian economy. This issue comprises of nine research papers covering areas related to microfinance, women empowerment, monetary policy, demonetization, waste management, savings and investment pattern and FDI .

‘Empowerment of women through MGNREGA in Nadia district of West Bengal’ by Bhajan Chandra Barman of Netaji Nagar College, Kolkata, dwells upon the impact of MGNREGA on women. A Cumulative Empowerment Index (CEI) has been constructed. The impact was not satisfactory because the majority (95.2%) of the studied women belonged to low to medium level of economic empowerment and only 5% of them belonged to a high empowerment level. Speaking on monetary policy the paper on ‘Impact of monetary policy on GDP of India’ by Om Prakash Agrawal and Prateek Kumar Bansal from Institute of Business Management, GLA University, Mathura, examines the impact of various financial components of monetary policy on the GDP. It concludes that during the study period, monetary policy of the nation had positive impact on the GDP.

The paper on ‘Saving and investment pattern of rural households of Himachal Pradesh’ by Sharif Mohd. and O. P. Verma from Department of Commerce, Himachal Pradesh University, arrive at the conclusion that investors have given less importance for their old age requirements and unexpected contingencies and bank deposits still hold higher priority among institutional investments in rural area are the major findings of the study. An article on ‘A critical appraisal of demonetisation in India’, written by Rabinarayan Samantara* and Monika, belonging to Shivaji College, Delhi University, finds out that demonetization was followed by an immediate decline in the growth rate within the economy although the long term economic effects of this move are yet to be examined. ‘Microfinance on poverty alleviation: Empirical evidence from Indian Perspective” by Mohd Azhar Ud Din Malik from Govt. Women College Pulwama, Anantnag, concludes that microfinance pre-supposes a drastic, dynamic and democratic change in the perception and expectation change in our society.

An interesting article in this issue is on ‘A study on the management of waste assets with special reference to the waste lands in the select temples of Tamil Nadu’ by R. Elavarasan and S. Vijay from Vels Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies. While the temples have donated lands to the cultivators, over the years the cultivators have failed to contribute to the finance of temples, as per the requirements. As a result the temples’ revenues have fallen and they are struggling.

‘HDI and Gender Development Index: Current status of women development in India’ is a paper written by Rajeshwari Malik belonging to Maharaja Surajmal Institute, New Delhi. The paper studies gender inequality at workplace as an indicator of development in true sense. Finally, there is a paper on “Organisational culture: A comparative study of public sector and private sector banks in East Delhi’, by  Saumya Aggarwal, a research scholar from Department of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics. It states that while there is an interrelationship between various factors of the OCTAPACE profile there seem to be no significant differences between the OCTAPACE profiles of the two types of banks.

I hope this issue of PRAGATI makes for an interesting reading on diverse aspects of Indian economy.

Happy reading and Happy New Year!!

Editor

Prof. K.V. Bhanu Murthy