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Financial inclusion through microfinance has become a powerful force in improving the living conditions of poor farmers, rural non-farm enterprises and other vulnerable groups. In its unique ability to link the existing extensive network of India's rural bank branches with the Self Help Groups (SHG), the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has covered up to 97 million poor households by March 2010 under its Self Help Group Bank Linkage Programme. Policy-makers have proclaimed SHGs as ''the most potent initiative ... for delivering financial services to the poor in a su.

The demand and supply of credit in the rural credit markets is investigated in this paper using household data from India. The aim is to study the effects of household, farm productive characteristics and the policy variables on the demand and supply of credit. A type 3 Tobit model is estimated which corrects for sample selection and endogeniety bias. In addition, a generalised Double Hurdle model is estimated where the information on the household's access to credit is included to estimate the demand and supply of credit. The results suggest that the size of the operational holdings, net-wealth, dependency ratio, educational level of the household and the wages and output prices are important determinants of the demand and supply of credit for farm households. The Double Hurdle model confirms that the 'size of land
owned' plays a crucial role in whether the household has access to a loan or not.

Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1 Sustainable Consumption and Production: Introduction to Circular Economy and Beyond -- Introduction -- Circular Economy -- Circular Economy and Beyond -- References -- 2 From Business Models to Modes of Provision: Framing Sustainable Consumption and Production -- Introduction -- Antecedents of Framing the Impact of Production and Consumption -- The Business Model Label as a New Way of Framing Sustainable Consumption and Production -- Advantages of the Business Model Framing -- More Inclusive Definitions of Value Created -- An Orientation to (Re-)design and Innovation -- Bridging to Incorporate Work on Product-Service Systems -- Addressing the Micro-Macro Challenge: Business Model Innovation and Societal Transitions -- An Explicit Look at the Shifting Boundary Between Production and Consumption -- Limitations of the Business Model Construct for Sustainable Consumption and Production -- Business (Model) as Usual -- Assessing the Sustainability of Modes of Provision -- Towards a Comparative Understanding of Modes of Provision -- References -- 3 Histories and Futures of Circular Economy -- Introduction -- Applying a Historical Lens to Circular Economy -- Imagined Futures of the Circular Economy -- Analysing Social Futures -- Contested Imagined Futures of Circular Economy -- Conclusion -- References -- 4 Critical Approaches to Circular Economy Research: Time, Space and Evolution -- Introduction -- The Temporalities of Material Flows: The Environmental Rationales for a CE -- The Spatiality of Material Flows: Revealing the Hidden Places of CE -- Material Flows Drive Evolutionary Adaptation -- Conclusion -- References -- 5 Scope for Circular Economy Model in Urban Agri-Food Value Chains -- New Urban Agenda: A Call for Transformation.

"The informal economy - broadly defined as economic activity that is not subject to government regulation or taxation - sustains a large part of the world's workforce. It is a diverse, complex and growing area of activity. However, being largely unregulated, its impact on the environment has not been closely scrutinised or analysed. This edited volume demonstrates that the informal sector is a major source of environmental pollution and a major reason behind the environmental degradation accompanying the expansion of economic activity in developing countries. Environmental regulation and economic incentive policies are difficult to implement in this sector because economic units are unregistered, geographically dispersed and difficult to identify. Moreover, given their limited capital base, they cannot afford to pay pollution fees or install pollution abating equipment. The informal manufacturing units, often operate under unscientific and unhealthy conditions, further contributing to polluting the environment. The book emphasizes and examines these challenges, and solutions, faced by various sectors of the informal economy, including urban waste pickers, small-scale farmers, informal workers, home-based workers, street vendors, and more. If the informal sector is to "Leave no one behind" (as the Sustainable Development Goals promise) and contribute to "Inclusive growth" (an objective of the green economy), then its impact on the economy as well as the environment has to be carefully considered. This book marks a significant contribution to the literature on both the informal economy and sustainable development, and will be of great interest to readers in economics, geography, politics, environment studies and public policy more broadly. Ranjula Bali Swain is Visiting Professor and Research Director at Center for Sustainability Research (CSR), Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden. She is also Professor of Economics at Södertörn University, Sweden. Uma Kambhampati is Head of School in the School of Politics Economics and International Relations and Professor, Department of Economics, University of Reading, UK"--

We examine how the impact on women empowerment varies with respect to the location and type of group linkage of the respondent. Using household survey data from five states in India, we correct for selection bias to estimate a structural equation model. Our results reveal that in the southern states of India empowerment of women takes place through economic factors. For the other states, we find a significant correlation between women empowerment and autonomy in women's decision-making and network, communication and political participation respectively. We do not however find any differential causal impact of different delivery methods (linkage models).

Microfinance programs like Self Help Group Bank linkage program (SHG), aim to empower women through provision of financial services. We investigate this further to determine whether it is the economic or the non-economic factors that have a greater impact on empowering women. Using household survey data on SHG from India, a general structural model is adopted where the latent women empowerment and its latent components (economic factors and financial confidence, managerial control, behavioural changes, education and networking, communication and political participation and awareness) are measured using observed indicators. The results show that for SHG members, economic factors, managerial control and behavioural changes are the most significant factors in empowering women.