-The Indian Express Suspension of work during festivals to ensure a cleaner Ganga and cow vigilantism, which has led to closure of several abattoirs and brought raw hide supply to half, have made things worse. Kanpur: The Namami Ganga Project has hurt leather workshop owner Aqueel Ahmed, 27. His earnings have dwindled with the crackdown on factories polluting the river in Kanpur’s Jajmau area. A kilometre away, priest Ramesh Prasad Tiwari,...

-Scroll.in India's social-sector spending remains woefully low and despite claims of being a pro-farmer Budget, the effective allocations are nearly the same as last year. Some commentators expected that the Union Budget 2017-’18 would craft a sharp departure from earlier budgets of this government. This it would do to mitigate the immense suffering of millions of casual workers, farmers and small traders caused by the “shock and awe” of the astoundingly callous...

-The Hindu Business Line Bringing digital banking to Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies is an important and laudable aspect of the Budget The Budget hides months of discussion, with stakeholders nursing a gamut of interests. This year was no exception and the Budget was an exercise in the accommodation of innumerable expectations; and it is bound to dissatisfy many. I would like to apply the old economic litmus test to judge its efficacy: Is...

-Livemint.com Windfall gains and remonetisation claims are still uncertain, but the Indian economy has suffered a short-term pain for sure On 8 November, 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs1,000 notes, which constituted 86% of the currency in circulation. Exactly three months later, where does the Indian economy stand today? In an interview to Mint after the Union budget, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das claimed that...

-The Indian Express Government could have undone the damage of demonetisation through the budget. The opportunity has been missed in deference to the whims of global finance. Since 97 per cent of the value of demonetised currency has returned to the banks, causing, contrary to the government’s expectations, very little extinction of currency, it is obvious that demonetisation has totally failed to achieve its purported objective of denting the black economy. It...