Contents

Microcredit is a vehicle of change and helps in transforming the lives in rural areas. After the commencement of the Grameen bank in the field of micro-credit, it started to emerge throughout the countries. Self-Help Group (SHG), a homogeneous group of ten to twenty members, gets the micro-credit from the bank without any collateral. Under NRLM (National Rural Livelihood Mission) previously known as Swarnajayanti Grameen Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY), the micro credit to the SHGs helps not only in reducing poverty through the establishment of micro enterprises but also in bringing women empowerment for social change. NRLM functions as an engine for financial inclusion in the country. It aims to reach out all the rural poor families and to link them to sustainable livelihoods opportunities besides to strengthen the social mobilisation of women and excluded groups through the process of SHG-bank linkage. The role of microcredit helps to reduce poverty by enabling the poor household sustainable self-employment and skills wage employment opportunities besides it promotes to financial inclusion. It also nurtures entrepreneurs and provide skills for the job market. The sustainability of SHGs depends on the five principles or called panch sutra which includes regular savings, regular meetings, regular accounts, regular repayments and adherence to terms and conditions.

The study has significantly identified that locations are critical to impact ICT access as well as the usage which further manifested as digital inequalities. It shows how the individual-level operational and attitudinal disparity along with access inequality complement the previous analyses and theories where it has already been observed that there are prominent rural-urban distinction in ICT adoption and also variations among different urban centres. It is found that not only the material access decline from a core urban location towards its peripheries, but the functional diversity and intensity and the attitude towards the ICTs also display a similar pattern. The pattern among the individuals from a rural or an urban residence also differs significantly. However, the gap is higher in case of a comparatively developed region than a less developed where the overall penetration itself is poor.

Poverty is primarily a social problem in India which has its historical root in social structure. Poverty among socially marginalised groups is proportionately very high which is inferred from their high engagement in the primary sector, casual works and unorganised sectors with low wages. Development induced displacement and land acquisition have left them with depeasantization and casual works. Constitutionally provided affirmative action and other government steps towards poverty alleviation and employment generation have partially solved their concerns. This paper examines the current situation of poverty and employment condition among socially marginalised groups, specifically among schedule caste and schedule tribes. It focuses on the causes of their deprivation and marginalisation. It also reflects the impact of government programmes and policies under inclusive development.

Social audit is a requisite tool under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to monitor and evaluate the works that are being carried out under MGNREGA, in line with annual village plans. MGNREGA play a helpful role to reformation local governance and transforming social defense into social justice. By analyzing the Social Audit mechanism under Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act, this paper explores how Social Audit process is effectively in Rural Employment. The basic objective of a social audit is to ensure public accountability in the implementation of projects, laws and policies. Primarily envisaged as only post implementation exercises, they have actually now emerged as a way to empower poor and transform social-political structures in the villages. Section 17 of the MGNREGA Act provides for conduct of regular ‘Social Audits’ at different stages of implementation of the scheme to ensure the reach of benefits to the poor. To strengthen the process of social audit, the Ministry Rural Development has notified the Social Audit Rules in June 2011 and made it mandatory to establish an independent Social Audit Unit to facilitate the Social Audits in Gram Panchayats and to ensure the proper implementation of various Rural Development Programs. We examine the accuracy and performance of Social audits process in Gram Panchayats of Different District in Chhattisgarh.

Training is a process of enhancing the capabilities of a person to utilize a specific technique or technologies. But various problems hinder its effectiveness. This study tried to investigate the problems faced by the participant farmers in training process on climate risk management in agriculture and to determine the factors that influence their problem orientation. Data were collected from the trained farmers of selected three unions of Nalitabari Upazila of Sherpur district of Bangladesh during April to May, 2015. The sample size of the study was 65 trained farmers and it was drawn from a population of 65 using total population sampling technique. For collecting quantitative data structured interview schedule wasused. Majority of the farmers (60.0%) had faced medium problems during the training process.“Lack of personal incentives to training” got the highest score and the first ranked problem for the farmers. Besides this, “Biasness in trainee selection”, “Lack of adequate resources”, “Lack of motivation and encouragement by other farmers”are some major problems faced by the farmers. Gender, farm size, access to information sources and attitude towards training were among the farmer’s characteristics found significantly correlated with the problems faced by them with only gender showing positive relationship. Among them access to information sources alone explained 27.2% of the variations to the extent of problems faced by the farmers was confirmed by the step-wise multiple regression analysis. However, attitude of farmers towards training and farm size also contributed significantly to explain the variation. A proper planning from Government with a better information dissemination system and access scope should be provided to the farmers to make the training given by different organization more effective.

The paper study attempts to ascertain the importance of how sports benefit from being closely engaged with positive psychology. Further, relationship between Sports and positive psychology is explored i.e. understanding how two distinct disciplines work in tandem. The paper focuses on culmination of sports with positive psychology; moreover it enhances its scope from focussing anxiety, stress, burnout to developing a positive sports psychology that focuses more upon mindset, strengths, grit, mental toughness and resilience. Thus, this study is in a growing line of research that would help to better understand mind-body connection and how it may be possible to prevent what is wrong and focus on what is right.

This paper develops a method for assessing the probability of consistent batting performance of the batsmen in the ODI cricket by using the Competency Levels of the batsmen. The Competency Levels of seven contemporary batsmen of Team India are computed on the basis of the ratings of 52 cricket fans on the skill and attitude components of the batsmen. Thereby the Probability of Success of each batsman for scoring at least fifty runs in any ODI match is computed against the numerical value of his Competency Level. The Rate of Success of the batsmen for scoring at least fifty runs per ‘effective opportunity’ in ODI cricket matches is calculated from statistical data of past performances of the batsmen. There is a strong positive linear relationship between the Probability of Success and the Rate of Success having Correlation Coefficient r=0.8709. This paper has a capacity to encourage the selectors of cricket teams for using the concept of the Probability of Success instead of the statistical records of performances in selecting batsmen for their teams.