-The Times of India MUMBAI: The share of bank credit to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) has been shrinking since three years — from 5.9% in October 2015 to 4.5% in October 2018, data from the RBI show. While it is clear the sector is facing problems due to the double whammy of demonetisation and GST, it’s unclear whether MSEs are hit by liquidity issues or whether banks do not find them...

-The Hindu Report concedes that farmers couldn’t buy seeds due to cash crunch. Millions of farmers in India were unable to buy seeds and fertilisers for their winter crops because of demonetisation, according to a report submitted by the Union Agriculture Ministry to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. This official acknowledgement of the impact of demonetisation comes on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a rally in Jhabua, Madhya...

-The Indian Express On October 30, at the meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council chaired by Jaitley and attended by Urjit Patel among others, the central bank is learnt to have downplayed the issue of liquidity crunch. While the Reserve Bank of India said two weeks ago that there is no sign of a liquidity crunch, its own latest data shows that banks’ credit outstanding to the Micro, Small and...

-The Hindu Business Line Roy tracks how microfinance, despite its blemishes, has empowered the unbanked in the country For the poor in rural India, till not very long ago, credit meant the unscrupulous mahajans who roamed the villages with wads of cash. Dime a dozen Bollywood movies had depicted the wily moneylender who not just ripped off the hapless creditors, but who was also cruel enough to grab their movable and immovable...

-Livemint.com The production of ‘mahua’ is finally entering the formal economy as new initiatives seek to upscale this indigenous drink, selling it across the country and even the globe It is a cloudy morning in Nangur village in Bastar district, Chattisgarh. It is a settlement of a little over 400 families, considered fairly large in these parts. We make a bumpy journey down a narrow, unpaved road intermittently shaded by sargi (sal)...