The Reading Warehouse

State of India's Livelihoods Report (SOIL Report) is an annual publication that addresses contemporary issues in the livelihoods sector. It is the only document that aggregates the experiences and challenges of this sector, analyses case studies and reports progress of both government-run and the privately run programmes. This report is released each year during the Livelihoods Asia Summit, which is a pan-Asia platform that presents opportunities for cross-learning and sharing of unique experiences within the countries in this region.

While some core chapters are continued from the previous years' reports in order to provide stability to the structure of the report, the authors have covered some interesting new themes. An overview of the economic situation in the past years and a concluding chapter on dealing with equity and inclusion in growth are part of this year's report. In addition to this, two chapters on agricultural livelihoods and tribal livelihoods are new areas of in-depth focus. The report also covers policies, legal and fiscal framework for livelihoods, and key government programmes and schemes. Further, the authors have re-evaluated the employment and skills landscape, CSR and FPOs after a year's gap.

Narasimhan Srinivasan has been pursuing his personal interests in financial inclusion, rural finance and livelihoods after three decades in RBI and NABARD. He is currently active as an expert adviser and international consultant for different multilateral and national organisations. He had authored the well-known publication on microfinance, State of the Sector Report on Microfinance in India, for five years and the 2015 and 2016 edition of SOIL Report jointly with Girija Srinivasan. He serves as an independent director on boards of a bank, a few companies and trusts. He is a member of several industry forums on the themes of financial inclusion, microfinance and responsible finance.