-The Telegraph New Delhi: The government has declared 362 towns and cities in 15 states free of open defecation, with Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra topping the chart and Bengal scoring a duck. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan aims to make the whole of India open-defecation-free by 2019. In Gujarat, 167 urban local bodies have been provided with open-defecation-free certificates, followed by 91 in Andhra Pradesh and 70 in Maharashtra. (See chart)     "A ward...

-Livemint.com Farmers are getting paid for their produce by traders either by cheque, but many farmers are not able to encash the cheques due to currency shortages at banks Mumbai: Nearly three weeks after the partial demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes, cashless contracts are running the trade at Maharashtra’s major agricultural markets, but problems with bank liquidity persist. Farmers are getting paid for their produce by traders either by cheque or via...

-Frontline.in To rural India, which is already reeling under multiple crises, demonetisation has come as yet another blow. WHEN the Prime Minister made the decision to withdraw Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes, he did not quite factor in the impact it would have on agriculture. Despite the rhetoric the concept of digital wallets has not yet entered rural India unlike in much of the country’s urban areas, and much of rural and...

-Economic and Political Weekly Documents seized by the Income Tax Department in private corporations imply pay-offs were made to the PM and leading politicians. At 8 pm on 8 November 2016, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to a live broadcast on Doordarshan to make the historic announcement that the government was demonetising notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, emphasising his commitment to ridding India of the “evils of corruption” and...

-The Indian Express The fourth Minor Irrigation census, conducted in 2006-07, said there were over 21.5 lakh wells and borewells across Maharashtra. Mumbai: The abundant monsoon this year may have brought cheer to the state, but long-term supply of water remains a cause for concern. Data from wells monitored by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in Maharashtra has shown that water level has declined in 70 per cent of such wells....