RBI notification excluding NBFCs from gold loan rule will hurt poor women

Central bank's decision to the raise the loan-to-value ratio is welcome relief for formal banking, but it does not address the issues faced by the most badly affected segments of our economy.

Even before Covid-19 hit us, the economy was in steep decline. Most commentators were agreed that the principal cause was the fall in demand, especially among the poor and particularly in rural areas. Of course, the pandemic and the precipitate lockdown that followed aggravated all the weak spots in the economy. Worse than the economic consequences were the humanitarian consequences, which saw millions deprived of their meagre earnings and trudging hundreds, sometimes over a thousand kilometers, to reach home because no arrangements had been made to transport them back. Much of this has since been attended to but until demand