China, as the most populous country in the world, is ageing rapidly. Against the background of dramatic demographic changes in this century, China’s current pension system is badly structured, and not able to cope with the rapid ageing population. The Chinese government is well aware of...

The objective of this report is to share a market level overview of the early stage progress of (Mobile Financial Services) MFS in Bangladesh up through the first quarter of 2012. A series of short surveys and discussions with ten banks and four (Mobile Network Operator) MNOs, plus interviews...

Goa is celebrating the Golden Jubilee Year of its Liberation. The recent economic achievements of the state are highlighted. The economic and financial structure of the state as well as the various financial inclusion initiatives taken by the Reserve Bank are outlined. Policy challenges ahead...

There are several themes which emerge from the comparative analysis of social security systems in Southeast Asia. Each country will need to address the limitations of their respective system in relation to each of the themes outlined. The first theme concerns the need for a multi-tier social...

The commonly held belief that the Central government pension bill has the potential to reach an unsustainable level does not appear to be based on any realistic assessment of such liabilities in the future years. The future pension liabilities of the Central Government would be primarily driven...

This paper analyses the scope and limitations of gender responsive budgeting in Mexico within the overall framework of fiscal decentralisation. However, decentralised gender responsive budgeting can be meaningful only when the local governments have significant assignment of functions and...

The paper has argued that to expand coverage of micro-pensions, social entrepreneurship (along with social responsibility) will be needed by the financial sector, including the MFIs, insurance companies and mutual funds. Such entrepreneurship should aim to drastically reduce overall transaction...

Economic Review of Developments in 2005 and Prospects for 2006. Presented before the Budget for 2006.

This paper focuses on government investment and expenditure policies. Going beyond the growth experience, the author also tries to relate the policy experience to the issues of aggregate poverty, income distribution and hunger at an aggregate level. The broad theme that emerges from the analysis...