-The Times of India CHENNAI: If demonetisation was a push for a cashless economy, it has been working very slowly. Reserve Bank of India data shows the usage of wallets, non-UPI banking apps and Aadhaar-enabled payments has been slow to catch on, while that of debit cards has fallen. The UPI payments have been growing, and a significant chunk of them are mobile-based. Overall, electronic payments stood at Rs 200 trillion in...
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Jean Dreze, development economist, interviewed by Ankita Virmani (Firstpost.com)
-Firstpost.com Development economist Jean Dreze has been vociferous critic of the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes a year back. He had famously warned that "demonetisation in a booming economy is like shooting at the tyres of a racing car". A year on, it seems his caution has come true. In the first quarter of the current financial year, the GDP growth slowed to a three-year...
More »Digital transactions rose 13.5% to Rs.124.69 tn in September: RBI -Komal Gupta
-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...
More »Cash transfers for subsidised foodgrain: Government claims 99% success. Not so, say 33% -Mridula Chari
-Scroll.in But study of the pilot scheme also finds that 67% of respondents now prefer cash transfers. In three Union territories where the government is running an experimental project to distribute cash instead of subsidised foodgrains, a third of beneficiaries surveyed said they either had not received any money at all (with or without proof) or did not know if they had received it. This despite government claims that 99% of...
More »Too good to be true: How MNREGA 'improvements' are actually costing workers their wages -Ankita Aggarwal
-Scroll.in Inability of local officials and infrastructure to cope with the complex technologies driving the scheme could be leaving lakhs of workers unpaid. This year’s Economic Survey lists several “improvements” in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act brought about since 2014-’15. Mostly, these “improvements” are technological initiatives – greater convergence with other programmes, “geo-tagging” of MNREGA assets. They have not made a difference on two of the stated purposes – timely...
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