Futures trade in agricultural commodities in the modern exchange era has so far proven beneficial only in the cases of a few commodities/contracts that fulfil the basic criteria of selection for futures trading accompanied by stringent and timely regulatory actions while it has impacted...

India's rural households continued to remain financially excluded prominently compared to urban households particularly with respect to their access to institutional credit. Nearly half (44%) of the credit requirements of rural households is still met through non-institutional sources of finance...

India has witnessed a limited progress in Agricultural Market Information Services (AMIS) confining to dissemination of the available information rather than improving its extent of coverage, quality and timeliness. The paper attempts to discuss the critical gaps in the existing system of AMIS...

Pulses are an indispensable part of Indian diet but the persistent gap in their supply and demand is making them unaffordable for the poor. The prevailing substantial gap is expected to widen further if the domestic production levels are not raised substantially with the necessary policy...

In its recent report, the expert committee on commodity futures concludes that futures trade in India has increased the price volatility of largely traded commodities (urad, chana, wheat) during periods of excess liquidity. It finds an increase in prices for commodities that have small market...

An attempt is made to study the pattern of trade, comparative economics forex derivates and the impact of futures on forwards and spot. The existing trends so far suggest that despite the significant rise in futures volumes, there was no notable shift in volumes from forwards to futures market....

Indian farm sector distress, despite the continuation of price support programme, has not declined but rather increased, as farmers are unable to get remunerative prices for their crop produce due to the inability of the programme to cover all crops and all farmers across the country....