Journal Press India^®

This issue of PRAGATI has an interesting amalgam of issues pertinent to Indian economy including banking, farm reforms, population ageing, infrastructure, microfinance and smart cities. An interesting article on ‘Population ageing in India and its neighbouring countries with special reference to social security’ has developed models of per cent of elderly, life expectancy and healthy life expectancy predictions. These parameters are  estimated up to some significant levels of accuracies. Also, an outline of social security for elders in these countries has been provided. Another paper is on ‘Case of economic dualism subverting rural reforms: Drawing parallels from MGNREGA & Farm Bill, 2020’. This paper highlights the criticality of Farm Bill reform and arrive at the conclusion that India needs to calm down her opposition to rural reform though dialogues with various stakeholders keeping in mind the already lagging performance of agricultural sector which urgently need a life - line in the form of reform bills.
Another current issue addressed in this issue is the growth in credit to priority sector by commercial banks in India through an inter-state analysis. The analysis concludes that the growth of credit to priority sector declined in the recent years and in some states the numbers of accounts in priority sector of commercial banks have been continuously recording a declining rate of growth which needs to be checked keeping in view the broad objectives of social and financial inclusion of the RBI/government. The paper on ‘Analysis of current trends and emerging issues in microfinance: A comparison of India and Bangladesh’ attempts to examine the influence of microfinance interventions on the poor living in India and Bangladesh. Both the countries have attracted the attention of the world towards the latest and effective means of combating destitution.
‘Digital cities’ or ‘smart cities’ are the need of the day, and in this regard one of the papers concludes that ‘smart cities’ are developing gradually, and the stake holders realize their needs, importance, and benefits, on the quality of life. The planning and policymaking which incorporates the use of ICT will prove to be a game changer in the long run’. The article on ‘Relationship between infrastructure and economic development: A case of Indian states’ highlights the vast differences among the states in the level of infrastructure development and economic development. Further, it finds that variations in the availability of basic infrastructure facilities across states largely explain the persisting inter-state differences in the level of economic development.
In an important study on ‘Changes in household financial assets in India: A study of the long-term trends’, the author concludes that the public sector contribution was more than the corporate sector in the planning era although their share decreased in the liberalization period. The index of changes in household financial assets shows that bank deposits remain the largest component of the portfolio. Finally, in a somewhat unconventional paper 'The Big Billion Days' Vs. 'Great Indian Festival' e-shopping: A study on new consumer behaviour paradigm’ it is concluded that e-commerce carries the potential of making India an attractive investment and global data hub. India currently enjoys many advantages with respect to e-commerce businesses such as growing demand, attractive opportunities, policy support, increasing investments and the competitive advantage of developing special skill sets for this sector, coupled with vast software technology manpower to implement the same.
This period of the Covid-19 pandemic gripping people across the country has been the most devastating time in independent India. My heartfelt condolences to those who have lost dear ones. I thank the authors and the editorial team who made it possible to come out with this issue before time. And, my best wishes that cheerful times return.

Prof. K. V. Bhanu Murthy
Editor