-The Indian Express These enterprises — whom she broadly categorises as ‘rural commercial capital’ — enjoy privileged access to formal credit networks. In her insightful study of the working of agricultural markets in West Bengal, British development studies scholar Barbara Harris-White has documented in detail how trade in farm produce is controlled through a web of rural and semi-urban agro commercial enterprises. These enterprises — whom she broadly categorises as ‘rural commercial capital’...

-Livemint.com The discourse in the state treats all farmers—small, medium, big, irrigated and rain-fed—as a homogeneous entity, ignoring differences in the severity of their problems Sharad Pawar breached an unwritten rule of Maharashtra politics. Recently, he spoke about the woes of small farmers, albeit those in the irrigated belt. He regretted that a sugarcane farmer of barely two acres of land is often viewed as a rich farmer and that too, rather...

-The Hindu ‘Merchants say they have no cash. They offer low prices [for the paddy crop], which is unviable.’ BARABANKI (Uttar Pradesh): The little makeshift kiosks that dot Baruwanarendrapur’s rustic landscape, supplying it rations and other daily items, have not opened since November 9. The next nearest supply point is at Ramnagar Kasba, a good 10 km away, entailing an excruciating wait at the railway crossing on the route. Holi Gautam, a Dalit...

-News18.com Bhopal: Cashless villagers in Madhya Pradesh's Bardua village looted a public distribution system shop (PDS) after its owner refused them to accept the now-defunct Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currencies for groceries on Friday, sources told CNN-News18. A group of villagers turned up at the shop to buy food grains and an altercation ensued between them and shop owner Munnilal Ahirwar after the later refused to accept the currencies, police said....

-Scroll.in A large section of women in India are out of the banking system, and the currency withdrawal has hit them hard. The helpline rang all day at the women’s crisis centre in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, on Wednesday. Counsellors took calls from women wondering what to do with their hard-earned savings after Prime Minister Narenda Modi in a surprise television address to the nation the night before had announced the demonetisation of...