-The Indian Express For the poor, with little cash in the first place, digital promises to ‘swipe’ them out, before their marginalisation is even addressed. Demonetisation is, by its very nature, an autocratic, coercive step. The demonetisation of November 2016 has affected every single Indian. We are, as usual, persuaded to bear the pain and suffering, to “sacrifice” for the nation. The rhetoric continues but it now seems clear that the objective...

-Livemint.com We need a strategy to control air pollution across north India, and better monitoring is the first requirement From the debate over Arvind Kejriwal’s odd-even policy to outrage over poisonous post-Diwali smog, India’s public discourse on air pollution was centred in and around Delhi in 2016. This needs to change if we want to evolve an effective strategy to counter pollution. Before delving into the reasons for this, it might be...

-Vikalp The paddy cropping and harvesting season has been concluded and the Rabi crops (mainly wheat) is seeded into the vast agricultural plains of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. The region is known to be highly dependent upon agriculture for livelihood and food security, but it is also known as one of the economically backward-regions of the country. The persistent negligence by the government to develop a mechanised crop procurement system (through Food...

-TheWire.in According to doctors working in hospitals providing low-cost treatment, the number of patients has reduced by about 30% since demonetisation. The recent debate on demonetisation-related deaths has taken place mainly in the context of people who died while waiting in bank queues or collapsed while standing in these queues and died soon after. In addition, there are those whose sudden death is being attributed to stress from not finding valid currency...

-The Hindu Mill workers being trained to carry out cashless transactions Hooghly: Vijay Bahadur Chauhan, a 57-year-old jute mill worker, is listening attentively to what a bank official is saying. The official of a public sector bank is highlighting how a non-Android phone user, without Internet connectivity, can still carry out cashless transactions. Only a handful of workers at Hastings Jute Mill, one of India’s first jute-making factory, which began operations in 1875,...