-The Economic Times Yogi Adityanath’s government in Uttar Pradesh opened a Pandora’s box of loan waivers and there seems to be no stopping it. The BJP, perceived by many as a reformist party committed to addressing chronic structural issues, is taking populism to new heights. Loan waivers could prove to be a huge drain for the exchequer and might deal a blow to the creation of much-needed infrastructure in agriculture. The chief...

-PTI Also says that note ban's impact could adversely affect its business The country's largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI), has expressed apprehensions that demonetisation may continue to result in slowing down of the economy and adversely affect its business. The government had discontinued Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes from November 9, 2016, and issued new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 currency notes in exchange for the discontinued ones. The long-term...

-TheWire.in It is about agriculture’s place in the life our country, equity’s place in the life of our agriculture, and farmers’ place in the world of equity. P. Sainath has to be crazy. Or all those who read him, hear him and do nothing about what he is writing, saying, doing, have to be crazy. He says of the Indian drought : ‘Drought horribly exacerbates misery. It adds cruelly to the crisis. It is...

-The Telegraph Bhopal: The turbaned, white-haired, kurta-dhoti-wearing "Tauji" figures are there too, but one outstanding feature of the current farmer agitation in Madhya Pradesh are its jeans-clad, smartphone-wielding spearheads. If the veteran "Kakkaji" Shiv Kumar Sharma is the public face of the movement, which lacks a central leadership, much of the spadework is being done by a band of young, bilingual, stats-savvy and largely apolitical agriculture graduates. Their leader Kedar Sirohi, who is...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A group of retired bureaucrats have written an open letter ruing the "rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism" that is choking dissent, and urging public authorities to take "corrective action" to "reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution". "Argumentation and discussion about different perspectives - the lifeblood not only of institutions of learning but of democracy itself -are being throttled," the letter says. "Disagreement and dissent are considered seditious...