-The Hindu Business Line Sowing of rice, coarse cereals continues to be lower than last year New Delhi: An increase in sowing of pulses has pulled up total sowing in the ongoing Rabi season so far to 519.27 lakh hectare, which is marginally above the previous five-years’ average acreage (normal of corresponding weak) of 517.45 lakh hectare. Compared with the acreage last year, which was a drought year, sowing till December 16 is...

-The Hindu Shaktikanta Das says Rs. 12.44 lakh crore in invalid notes may not have come back to banks The Finance Ministry on Thursday said the Rs. 12.44 lakh crore figure reported by the Reserve Bank of India as the amount having been deposited in banks since the November 8 demonetisation announcement could be inflated due to double-counting. Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said the RBI had infused three times the...

-Business Standard This is the time when farm labour is engaged in the fields which result in a dip in demand for work under MNREGA New Delhi: November is considered the best month for sowing of rabi crops as the winter starts setting in and the residual moisture in soil is still available, lowering farmers reliance on ground water. This is also the time, when farm labour is engaged in the fields and...

-Hindustan Times Village Khokh (Patiala): Nek Singh Khokh fears he might wilt, just the way the saplings in his sprawling nursery might. Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled his demonetisation plan, scrapping big denomination currency to drain the economy of black money and counterfeits, Khokh has been struggling to pay labourers to tend to his saplings. The owner of a nursery, some 25 km west of the Punjab town of Sirhind, Khokh...

-The Times of India BIJNOR: Despite the government's announcement that old currency notes can be used to buy seeds, the sowing of wheat has fallen significantly in West UP districts because the seed department has stopped giving them to farmers. According to agriculture department officials, seed centres have stopped selling them since November 24 although it is the peak of the wheat sowing season for the Rabi crop. The reason, officials...