-The indian Express Govt hopes demonetisation will accelerate India's drive towards a cashless economy. The challenge, however, is to get the unbanked millions into the net. Mumbai: FOR MOST of this year, bankers at State Bank of India, the country’s largest bank, were trying hard to market Point of Sales (POS) machines for debit and credit cards to small businesses and establishments. This would give the bank access to funds at relatively...

-The Economic Times Farmers accustomed to decades of government policy failure are willing to bear the pain caused by the government’s decision to recall Rs 500 & 1000 bills, but engineering a systematic failure of the rural cooperative banking sector would be an unpardonable desecration. Earlier rural bank branches were given a step motherly treatment: Rural cooperative bank branches were not replenished with lower denomination currency, while the newer higher denomination notes...

-The Hindu Gopal Singh of Lamdegadh hamlet, which crowns a hill of Chamoli district near the Kumaon-Garhwal border, has to walk 8 km to reach the nearest motorable road. Chamoli (Uttarakhand): In sleepy Uttarakhand villages, tucked away inside lush green forests far from motorable roads, there has been a sudden burst of activity for a few days now as people rush out of their houses in the early hours each day, hoping...

-NDTV New Delhi/ Jhansi: It is 8 in the morning and for 60-year-old mason Amir Khan, a migrant from Uttar Pradesh's drought-hit Bundelkhand region, it looks like the day will involve yet another futile wait for work on a South Delhi road - the third such day in succession. Mr Khan is one among thousands from Bundelkhand who work as daily wagers in bigger cities each year, sending back money to help...

-Caravan Magazine “It was like hitting hard at the bird’s nest with a stone,” said P Somu, a Dalit migrant labourer, who travelled from Mudigubba mandal of Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh to Cochin to work. He said, “It’s the same feeling I got after I was cheated by [the agro-based retail conglomerate] AgriGold. I had sold the cow and calf I loved.” When I met Somu on 12 November 2016,...