-The Hindu The ongoing repercussions of the government’s decision to demonetise high-value currency notes are being felt in particular by cash-intensive sectors such as the microfinance industry, according to microfinance company Satin Creditcare. “It’s been a pretty tough time (post demonetisation),” H.P. Singh, chairman and managing director of Satin Creditcare, said in an interview. “The cash supply position has been very bad in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab… in both...

-The Indian Express Governments are making Aadhaar mandatory in contravention of court orders One reason for the controversy surrounding the Aadhaar project is the pending litigation against it in the Supreme Court. The cases draw on substantive critiques, including exclusion and deprivation caused by the usage of Aadhaar in provisioning essential services such as the PDS and MGNREGA, breaches of individual privacy and threats to national and individual security in the way...

-Down to Earth Over 20 years of aerial spraying on cashew plantations in Kerala and other states has left many with mental and physical disorders The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, directed the Kerala government to pay Rs 500 crores in three months as compensation to over 5,000 victims of the use of Endosulfan pesticide. People, especially newborns, have suffered deformaties, health complications and loss of family members due to exposure to...

-The Financial Express New Delhi: The states have not been lifting the entire volume of foodgrains allocated by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for the various social sector schemes including National Food Security Act (NFSA), mid-day meal and other welfare schemes for the past many years due to inadequate storage facilities. According to official data, in FY16, only 84% of wheat and 94% of rice allocated to states for distribution for...

-The Hindu Business Line Foodgrain output down 28.7% as paddy area shrinks Hyderabad: In the recent numbers released by the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB), Telangana stood second only to Maharashtra, with 1,400 farmers and farm labourers ending lives in the year 2015-16. The State had accounted for nearly 10 per cent of all 12,000 farm suicides reported that year. The latest numbers gathered by the Telangana government corroborated the serious distress in the...