A fund that tracks an index does not make the same investment decisions as a fund whose manager actively selects securities, yet both have historically faced the same regulatory requirements. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced the Mutual Fund Lite (MF Lite) framework to address this, creating a separate, lighter-touch regulatory route for passively managed schemes.
India's climate transition requires finance to move beyond public expenditure and conventional lending. Green deposits were introduced as one such instrument, allowing depositors to place funds with regulated financial entities with the proceeds earmarked for eligible green activities and projects.
India’s infrastructure financing requirements have expanded with urbanisation, industrialisation and the growth of physical and digital connectivity. The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), established in 2015, was registered under SEBI specifically as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund, and was designed to bring institutional capital into this space by using government funding as an anchor.
The Mahila Samriddhi Yojana (MSY) in Haryana was structurally revamped and targeted in 2021 to address deep financial vulnerabilities among marginalized women (Government of Haryana, 2021). Implemented by the Haryana Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (HSFDC) and the Haryana Backward Classes and Economically Weaker Sections Kalyan Nigam (HBCEWKN), the scheme functions as a targeted financial inclusion model (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 2025). It operates in close collaboration with central apex corporations, including the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSCFDC) and the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC) (NBCFDC, 2026).
Chandigarh’s scheme architecture combines locally administered welfare programmes, centrally sponsored schemes and public infrastructure projects financed through the Union Budget. Chandigarh is a Union Territory without a legislature, therefore, its expenditure is presented under the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Demand No. 53. Consequently, its departmental priorities must be read through Union budget documents, Chandigarh Administration’s departmental records and the programmes implemented by its public institutions.
India’s net-zero transition is increasingly becoming an economic concern alongside its environmental goals. India needs to expand energy access, support industrialisation, meet rising electricity demand and improve living standards while reducing the emissions intensity of economic activity. The challenge is not simply to replace fossil fuels with cleaner alternatives, but to finance this transformation without placing an unsustainable burden on public finances, businesses or households. Future policy frameworks must also account for human development priorities, including health, education and poverty reduction, to ensure that emissions reduction targets remain compatible with improvements in living standards and broader socioeconomic progress.
Kerala's Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K-FON) emerged from a deliberate policy decision to treat internet access as a basic right rather than a market privilege. The state government declared internet access a basic citizen right in 2017, and the project was formally approved by the state cabinet in October 2019 with the explicit goal of bridging the digital divide.