-The Times of India There is a trace of pride in Nisha Chaurasiya's voice as she complains of how she and her co-workers in an anganwadi in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh struggled to provide food to babies and children, and to expectant women, since demonetisation took effect on November 8. "The self-help groups borrowed money from everybody, stood in bank queues, pleaded with officials and even spent from their own meagre savings...

-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 Telegraph New Delhi: The RBI has said deposits of demonetised notes with a value of over Rs 5,000 would be allowed just once in a bank account between now and December 30. The announcement not only lengthened the list of abrupt changes enforced since the note recall was announced on November 8 but also fuelled suspicion that the government is trying to dissuade people from depositing demonetised notes. The value of such...

-Bloomberg At the heart of the problem is the way informal businesses like the Varanasi weavers make payments. Varanasi: In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political base of Varanasi, Hinduism’s holiest city, weaver Zainul Abedin stares at the uneven mud floor of his home. Behind him, more than a dozen handlooms lie idle. Abedin is part of the collateral damage of Modi’s Nov. 8 decision to ban high-value currency notes, effectively cancelling...

-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...