-The Indian Express To suggest that demonetisation improved rural wages on the basis of rise in income of some workers is misleading. It halted the recovery of the rural economy, which had begun after the 2016 monsoon. There is now a consensus that the economy has been slowing down and is headed for a hard landing. Many who matter have spoken out and as Yashwant Sinha points out (‘I need to speak...

-Livemint.com Digital transactions rose 13.5%—from Rs109.82 trillion in August to Rs124.69 trillion in September, the second highest for a month since the demonetisation exercise New Delhi: Digital transactions in September rose to the second highest monthly level by value since the government’s demonetisation exercise in November. Transactions through digital means rose 13.5% to Rs124.69 trillion in September from Rs109.82 trillion in August, according to provisional data released on Wednesday by the Reserve Bank...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed concern over abusive and derogatory comments on social media and agreed with the contention of two senior advocates that people doing so should face the consequences. The court also hit back at those alleging that judges were increasingly becoming "pro-government". It said such accusations were unfortunate and people should come and sit in courtrooms to see how courts "hauled up"...

-TheWire.in Innovate methods are being used to encourage people to end open defecation, but issues like the underutilisation of funds and use of coercive methods to achieve targets remain. The government has run rural sanitation programmes since the 1980s. Yet, according to Census 2011, only about 30% of all rural households have toilets, and even fewer use those toilets. By contrast, under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, several changes have taken place. Efforts towards...

-The Indian Express It underlined that the US government funded the 2017 report which estimated 40 million slaves in the world, including 25 million in the Asia-Pacific. WARNING that “global documentation on slavery is increasingly targeting India as home to the highest number of slaves in the world,” the Intelligence Bureau in a “secret” note has recommended a strong campaign to “discredit” the information and a diplomatic offensive against it. The Bureau submitted...