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CURRENTS....
From Microcredit to Livelihood Finance 
It cannot be said
that microcredit can by itself promote economic growth. In
reality, microcredit is barely adequate even as an instrument
for poverty alleviation, leave alone economic growth. To serve the
purpose of economic growth, we need a new paradigm of livelihood
finance with much larger levels of resource allocation, both from
public resources as well as from the capital markets.
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More than profit:
Horta e Arte
Horta
e Arte is the largest organic vegetable seller and distributor in
Brazil. What makes it special is that it works
with small-scale farmers. Over the years, Horta e Arte has
provided farmers with technical assistance on organic farming. It has
also provided the commercial and administrative infrastructure
necessary for effective marketing and sales. Organic vegetables
produced by small-scale farmers are now sold in supermarkets in the
major cities of Brazil, and the farmers are reaping the financial and
ecological benefits.
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Mindful
Markets
A
presentation at the National Stock Exchange Annual Day , Mumbai,
October 21st, 2005
by Rajni Bakshi
Mindful Markets are as yet an aspiration. This term refers to a broad
range of efforts that aim to ensure that markets truly, and more fully,
work for the common good...
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Linking hands
by Stan Thekaekara
Expensive
Fair trade products mean poor consumers have so far been priced out of
helping producers, who are reeling from market forces. Now Just Change
hopes to benefit both groups. Stan Thekaekara explains
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Some get Toasted
by Payal Kapadia
Cotton is what needs the state's benefice, but it's wine that's getting
it.
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Points of View:
Making markets work for the poor
For the past 10 years,
research funded by the UK's Department for International Development
through its Crop Post-Harvest Programme (DFID CPHP) has looked at some
of the barriers that keep the world's poorest people from bringing
their goods to market. These include storage and transport issues, the
availability of market information, trust within the food chain, food
quality, and food safety.
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The
Global Marshall Plan Initiative
A planetary
contract for a worldwide
eco-social market economy
The
following is an excerpt of an article sent in by
IYPF member Torge Hamkens on behalf of The Global Marshal Plan
Initiative.
As
a result of
rapid and unbalanced globalisation, the world finds itself today in a
difficult
situation. While certain areas of the world experience immense economic
growth
supported by an unprecedented speed of innovation, we on the other hand
find
ourselves in an increasingly unacceptable situation regarding issues of
environmental degradation, poverty/distribution and balance amongst
cultures.
At the core of these issues is the fact that a major part of the
world’s population
is excluded from the potential benefits of globalisation. The Global
Marshall
Plan Initiative has evolved with the aim of changing this unfavourable,
unacceptable and dangerous situation.
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Building
a Creative Freedom :
J C Kumarappa and His
Economic Philosophy
Joseph
Cornelius Kumarappa (1892-1960) was a pioneering economic philosopher
and architect of the Gandhian rural economics programme. Largely
forgotten today, Kumarappa's life-work constitutes a large body of
writings and a rich record of public service, both of profound
significance. A critical intellectual engagement with his life-work can
shed new light on some of the most fundamental constituents of the
human economic predicament, and also contribute to a more nuanced
understanding of one of the most fecund periods in modern
Indian history.
Venu Madhav Govindu, Deepak
Malghan |
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WTO-SPECIAL:Free
Trade
or Fair Trade?
Jason Nardi
Free trade and fair trade seem two incompatible visions.
Supporters of fair trade say that exchanges between developed and the
less developed countries take place on uneven terms, and should be made
more equitable by protecting the weaker countries.
Free traders maintain that in the long run markets will correct the
imbalance, and both rich and poor countries will benefit from full
access to each others' markets. In this way, free traders hold that
free trade is fair trade.
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Power
to People:
The Putsil Way
The
Quarterly Newsletter-
October-December 2005
What
makes the villagers most proud of their power plant is that they built
it by themselves, and there has been absolutely no displacement. This
case study is based on Energy Options as an alternative to
Industrialization, Economic Globalization, yet different from the
conventional approach ...
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The commentary
below about 'Free Trade'
& the WTO
By Laura Carlsen
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December 16, 2005
What's increasingly apparent, though, is that the
WTO, and indeed the
entire concept of free trade globalization, has a communication
problem. Most of the texts being negotiated are unintelligible to the
untrained ear, which is to say to any normal person.
The specialized glossary of the WTO swells on a daily basis. That may
be fine for the government negotiators who view the acronyms and
catch-phrases as shorthand for insider information. For citizen groups,
though, it should be a cause for concern.
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CRITIQUE
OF SEED BILL 2004
The Seed Bill
2004
will push farmers deeper
into debt. ...
Navdanya, which literally, means 'nine seeds', is a biodiversity and
seed
conservation movement, ...
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GRAIN
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Seedling |
2005 | India's new Seed Bill
.. [19] By definition, the Seeds
Billdifferentiates a
farmer from those engaged in ... [22] For instance Navdanya in its
“Alternative
Agriculture
Policy” .. |
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