-Business Standard States sent initial queries for research to NIPFP in Feb-March; Work on research started around July New Delhi: Months before demonetisation, in February-March, the Madhya Pradesh and Haryana state governments had approached the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) to evaluate Pune-based NGO ArthaKranti’s proposals, which include the withdrawal of high-denomination notes. The initial queries for conducting the research from the two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state governments went...

-Business Standard The demonetisation drive has hit job creation, beside adding to the stress on banks New Delhi: Demonetisation is expected to negatively impact the overall economy and job generation, a number of economists told Parliament's standing committee on finance. Reserve Bank governor Urjit Patel was to come but could not; he will do so on January 18.   The panel heard four economists — former chief statistician Pronab Sen; Mahesh Vyas, head of...

-The Indian Express Manmohan Singh also suggested that the panel — which is looking into the demonetisation decision — call government officials to depose before it hears RBI Governor Urjit Patel. New Delhi: During a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance on Thursday, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought to know whether the RBI was given sufficient time to hold deliberations on the government’s demonetisation move. He also suggested that the...

-TheThirdPole.net Anupam Mishra, who spent three decades fighting for rejuvenation of India’s traditional water harvesting systems, died on December 19 If many of India’s ponds, wells, stepwells, springs, check dams and other traditional water harvesting systems are still in working order today, if at least a few of India’s rivers have been revived, much of the credit must go to Anupam Mishra. Through reportage, analysis and advocacy sustained over three decades, this...

-The News Minute Rice Diversity Blocks in Kerala and five other states preserve over 1,000 indigenous varieties of rice that were at risk of being lost. In the Indian subcontinent, the birthplace of paddy, the colours of the crop’s many varieties are as diverse as the land, its people, languages, cultures, costumes, dialects and so on. But most of that variety was lost, when farmers were asked to forgo indigenous varieties...