-The Hindu Business Line Rabi sowing down; sales of tractors and two-wheelers dip Mumbai: The demonetisation of high-value currency notes seems to have crushed the tender green shoots of economic recovery in rural India by choking off life-sustaining money supply and impeding the wheels of commerce from spinning. From FMCG firms to two-wheelers to tractor makers, companies had been looking forward to an increase in rural demand in the wake of an adequate...

-The Hindu Business Line SHGs pave the road to financial independence in UP villages Three years ago, Simrikha Devi’s eightyear-old son made an unusual request. He asked for hundred rupees to buy biscuits,knowing well that his mother, a daily wager, would have to scrounge for the money. Although she was taken aback, Simrikha gave him the money. Her curiosity grew further when he returned with a bag of biscuit packets and began hawking...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With over three weeks to go for the deadline to deposit invalidated 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, deposits in the scrapped currency continue to swell, straining the Centre's estimate of how much of the illegal tender might not come back into the system. Government data shows deposits in two high denomination notes by Saturday evening had totalled Rs 9.85 lakh crore. The imposing figure, shared by...

-The Hindu To overcome currency shortage at weekly markets, they are banking on the age-old practice CHAMPAGUDA (VISAKHAPATNAM DISTRICT): “What will we do with the Rs.2,000 note, which is a very big amount for us? As we don’t know how to exchange the demonetised note of Rs.500 in banks, we exchange it for Rs.400 from middlemen (called sahukars) in shandies (weekly markets),” says Kinusudi Kamala. She is among the many tribal women who...

-The Times of India In the finely balanced but lucrative economy of vegetable and fruit trade, demonetisation has had a bizarre effect. In distant rural areas, local vegetable prices — both wholesale and retail — have crashed as the oxygen of currency has been suddenly sucked out. Since the whole economy depended on cash, from transport to mandis to purchase prices, this is unsurprising. But in cities, where there is more liquidity,...