-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 Economic Times NEW DELHI: The Modi government has slashed the minimum support price of seven of the 11 products covered under minor forest produce collected by tribals in remote forest areas. The decision comes three years after the previous Congress-led UPA government fixed the MSP for these products for the first time. “The decision had to be taken because MSPs had been fixed on the higher side and needed to be rationalised....

-The Telegraph Nagpur: A special investigation team will probe the alleged harassment of poor women borrowers in Maharashtra by loan recovery agents of micro-finance institutions, the state government announced today after month-long street protests and an Assembly debate. Junior home minister Deepak Kesarkar assured an agitated Assembly that the state was considering a law similar to one Andhra Pradesh had enacted in 2011 to regulate the MFIs' lending and loan recovery practices. About...

-PTI Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday demanded setting up of a commission to probe source of funding of political parties. He also questioned the central government’s decision to exempt political parties from paying income tax while depositing old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. He sought to link the Centre’s tax exemption decision to the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday, suggesting the announcement was...

-Down to Earth Collective rights to undo historic injustice meted out to indigenous people remain completely ignored by the states, says Citizens’ report Ten years after the historic Forest Rights Act (FRA) was passed by the Indian lawmakers, only three per cent of villages or communities could secure their rights over forest resources which include land and the produce from the forests and water, states the Citizens’ Report prepared by Community...