-PTI New Delhi: The CPI on Monday welcomed Supreme Court holding that appeal for vote on ground of religion amounts to "corrupt practice", but said the issue of caste and language needs to be addressed "carefully". The party also wondered if the order can be taken as negation of the apex court's earlier verdict that Hinduism is a "way of life". Monday's verdict also held that appeal for voting on the grounds of...

A press statement issued from the Right to Food Campaign on 27 December, 2016 says that the demonetisation of old currency notes of Rs. 500/- and Rs. 1000/- denomination wreaked havoc on the livelihood security of the poor people. The labouring and toiling masses, who are mostly engaged in the informal sector, have been adversely affected due to the scrapping of old currency notes of Rs. 500/- and Rs. 1000/-...

-The Indian Express For the poor, with little cash in the first place, digital promises to ‘swipe’ them out, before their marginalisation is even addressed. Demonetisation is, by its very nature, an autocratic, coercive step. The demonetisation of November 2016 has affected every single Indian. We are, as usual, persuaded to bear the pain and suffering, to “sacrifice” for the nation. The rhetoric continues but it now seems clear that the objective...

-The Hoot Anupam Mishra was a greatly respected journalist who stayed away from the limelight but wrote with insight on water and the environment. Anupam Mishra, who died in Delhi on December 19 at the age of 68, had been one of the most respected persons in the Hindi media for at least two decades. For several years he had been the editor of Hindi Gandhi Marg, a much-admired  journal with...

-Livemint.com Economist Esther Duflo on demonetisation impact, role of randomized control trials in policymaking, low priority assigned to health and education in India New Delhi: India’s demonetisation of high-value currency notes is a dramatic example of a policy announcement made without any serious thought given to implementation, said Esther Duflo, one of the leading development economists of the world and a professor at the department of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of...