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The budget of 2011 presented on Feb 28th2 2011 by the then Indian finance minister reveals the government’s pro agriculture mandate. It clearly indicates that agriculture and rural development are at the top in the priority list of the government. The present budget is a reflection of notion that government is true to its promises of bringing the smile back to the farmers. Many provisions made in the budget would certainly boost the agriculture and rural development. No doubt that this budget is a move in the direction of direction of sustainable agriculture and rural development. This article examines various initiatives of the budget 2011-10 taken for agricultural and rural development. An effort has been made to analyze the impact of these initiatives on Indian agriculture and rural development and to suggest various measures for the future growth of agriculture and rural economy.

During last decade, the stalemate in multilateral trade negotiations under the framework of World Trade Organization (WTO) regime has provided impetus to the signing of regional trade agreements world over .South Asia is not an exception to this trend and has been involved in setting up its own bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). Most commonly cited cooperation agreements are Agreement on Trade and Commerce between India and Bhutan(1972), India-Nepal Bilateral Trade and Transit Treaties(1991), India–Sri Lanka Bilateral Free Trade Area(1998) Bangkok Agreement (1975), Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation (BIMST-EC-2004) and the Indian Ocean Rim Association of Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC-1997). One of the most significant steps towards regional economic cooperation in the history of South Asian countries, was taken with signing of The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) formed in 1985 with the objective of exploiting “accelerated economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region” for the welfare of the peoples of South Asia. And then seven South Asian countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka—initiated a framework for region-wide integration under the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) in 1995. In order to further cement the regional economic relations and overcome some impediments of SAPTA, the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) was signed in early 2004, which came into force on 1st July 2006. The SAFTA is a parallel initiative to the multilateral trade liberalization commitments of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries. SAFTA aims to reduce tariffs for intraregional trade among the seven SAARC member countries. It has been agreed that for the South Asian countries, Pakistan and India will eliminate all tariffs by 2012, Sri Lanka by 2013 and Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal by 2015. The current paper is an attempt in assessing the potential trade in the region with latest dataset with Gravity model approach.

Agricultural growth depends primarily on two main factors - institutional factors and technical factors. Institutional reforms or factors include land reform, tenancy  reforms and  institutional  credit reforms etc.  Technical factors emphasize  using agricultural inputs like high yielding variety seeds, fertilizers and mechanization of agriculture. As far as the mechanization of agriculture is concerned, tractor is one of the most important equipments used for farming. Major manufacturers of the tractors in India are – Eicher , Escorts, Ford, Indo Farm, HMT, Mahindra & Mahindrara, New Holland, Punjab Tractors , Sonalika, Tafe etc.The following table is showing the size of the tractor industry in India

Banking in India is mature in terms of supply, product range and reach-even in rural India through rural banking and remote banking. In terms of quality of assets and capital adequacy, Indian banks are considered to have clean, strong and transparent balance sheets. The present research work analyses the overall financial performance of major private sector banks in India through application of CAMEL Model. Besides it also attempts to compare the performance of these Banks with the help of Composite Ranking Method.

If the foreign aid or help is not used efficiently and managed effectively, if the receiving country does not put serious efforts in developing the domestic resources for its development, if the country becomes more and more dependent on foreign aid and loans continuously, it may be great cause of concern for the country. It may find itself in debt trap and face the debt servicing difficulties. In fact the external debt of the developing countries has been on rapid rise in absolute terms, that’s why the external debt of developing countries became the most talked about international problem. This paper throws light on certain important aspects of external debt of India and suggests the measures to for an effective external debt management policy.

Most of the countries of the world, which embarked on the road of economic development, had to depend on foreign capital to some extent. In fact in the initial stage of development, when domestic resources are not sufficient enough to finance development plans, foreign aid or capital is of immense importance. If the foreign aid or help is not used efficiently and managed effectively, if the receiving country does not put serious efforts in developing the domestic resources for its development, if the country becomes more and more dependent on foreign aid and loans continuously, it may be great cause of concern for the country. It may find itself in debt trap and face the debt servicing difficulties. In fact the external debt of the developing countries has been on rapid rise in absolute terms, that’s why the external debt of developing countries became the most talked about international problem. This paper throws light on certain important aspects of external debt of India and suggests the measures to for an effective external debt management policy.

Once Gunnar Murdyl, the Nobel Laureate had stated that it is the agriculture sector which decides if the battle for long term economic development will be won. This is absolutely true for a developing country like India. Despite its share decreasing in GDP (54% in 1960-61 to 23% in 2004-05), agriculture still remains the backbone of the Indian economy. Without its growth, it is futile to think of a high GDP growth rate of the country. Agriculture is still a provider of wage goods like food, fibre and fuel and also provider of raw material for a large number of industries. Agriculture boosts the economy through backward and forward linkages. It provides livelihood to over 60% of the population. And in India it also provides a cushion for the ratio between the urban and rural income.” Being such an important sector of the economy it can not be ignored or neglected. The present study is an attempt to analyze the growth of agriculture sector during the pre and post reform period as well as identify the most important factors that determine its growth performance.

India also adopted partial convertibility on current account in 1992-93 and full convertibility on current account in 1994-95. In fact, it is tempting to think of capital account convertibility as the natural follow up to the establishment of convertibility for current account transactions. India is moving step by step towards making the rupee convertible on capital account. The road of convertibility, in India, is a calculated gradual transition path started in the early 1990 just after the introduction of a market determined exchange rate (LERMS) in 1992 followed by full current account convertibility (UERS) in Aug., 1994. At the next stage, a 14 members Sodhani Panel, an expert group on foreign exchange was set up in November 1994. The Sodhani Committee report tabled in 1995 helped develop deepen and widen the forex market through introduction of various products. The third and final step towards forex liberalization was the set up of the committee on capital account convertibility by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 1997 under the chairmanship of former RBI Deputy Governor S.S. Tarapore to "lay the road map" to capital account convertibility. The five members Tarapore Committee on capital account convertibility in May 1997 had chalked out three stages to be completed by 1999-2000. The paper attempts to find the impact of historical development on convertibility issues.