-The Indian Express After Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were withdrawn from the system in November 2016, currency with the public, which stood at Rs 17.97 lakh crore on November 4, 2016, declined to Rs 7.8 lakh crore in January 2017 soon after demonetisation. Four years after the government announced demonetisation on November 8, 2016, the currency with public for the fortnight ended October 23, 2020 stood at a record high...

-Society for Social and Economic Research The economic reforms which were started in 1991 shifted the focus of fertilizer policies away from playing a leading role in building the fertilizer industry and ensuring the availability of fertilizers at affordable prices to farmers. Under the neo-liberal policy framework, reducing the fiscal burden of fertilizer subsidies and the foreign exchange burden of fertilizer-related imports became the overriding concerns of the state.  Interestingly, the post-liberalisation...

-The Indian Express An opportunity has been lost in the lackadaisical handling of the issue. When the establishment ignores the historical context and the emotional component underlying any debate, mass protests can erupt to potentially shape the future. The people of Punjab would not have wanted a confrontation with the Union government, neither would I want to put it so bluntly, but around us, agitated farmers, with a strong common purpose, are...

-Newsclick.in The re-skilling fund, introduced through a new labour code bill, may end up discouraging workers from using it, fear experts. The re-skilling fund, introduced through the Industrial Relations (IR) Code Bill, 2020, with an aim to train the retrenched workers, may come with controversial provisions for the beneficiaries, including requiring them to produce a proof of conformity to the government, a media report on Monday has hinted. A retrenched worker, who takes...

-Down to Earth Mounting expenses, under-provisioning of food subsidy budget leading to a huge debt is highly worrisome A fiscal crisis has been brewing in the last few years. Mounting food subsidy arrears — payable to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) due to ‘under-provisioning’ of food subsidy expenses in successive union budgets — has forced FCI to take loans to finance its operations. FCI is the central agency that manages procurement, storage...