-PTI Also says that note ban's impact could adversely affect its business The country's largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI), has expressed apprehensions that demonetisation may continue to result in slowing down of the economy and adversely affect its business. The government had discontinued Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes from November 9, 2016, and issued new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 currency notes in exchange for the discontinued ones. The long-term...

-Economic and Political Weekly Nandini Nayak (nandini@aud.ac.in) teaches at the School of Development Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi and is principal investigator of the research project on which this article is based. Shikha Nehra (shikhanehra92@gmail.com) is a graduate student at Ambedkar University Delhi and a research assistant on the same project. The renewed Public Distribution System (PDS) under the “rights-based” National Food SECurity Act, 2013 has increased access to foodgrains in Delhi. However,...

-The Hindu Managers of around 3,000 privately-run markets are to meet and protest new rules that ban sale of animals for slaughter at cattle markets Fridays are festive days at Pachokhara. For nearly half-a-century now, farmers, cattle-rearers and tradesmen have made the weekly trip to the cricket stadium-sized grounds of the Upadhyay family— prominent local land-owners — to trade cattle. A dirt road splits the ground into a SECtion for buffaloes and another for...

-The Hindu Men with no prior experience being employed in boats, says study Kochi (Kerala): Of all the 14 persons who were on board Carmel Matha, the fishing boat which was involved in a mid-sea collision on Sunday, no fishermen belonged to Kerala. Surprising as it may seem, the fact, however, has come as no surprise to those in the marine fisheries SECtor. A cursory glance at the functioning of fishing harbours of...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A group of retired bureaucrats have written an open letter ruing the "rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism" that is choking dissent, and urging public authorities to take "corrective action" to "reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution". "Argumentation and discussion about different perspectives - the lifeblood not only of institutions of learning but of democracy itself -are being throttled," the letter says. "Disagreement and dissent are considered seditious...