-The Indian Express Demonetisation: On digital transactions, too, RBI data shows that the volume of electronic payments, after peaking in December 2016 at 957.50 million transactions compared with 671.49 million in November, has been on a decline. New Delhi: When it launched the currency withdrawal in November, the NDA government had outlined four key objectives of the demonetisation exercise: detection of black money, elimination of fake currency, squeezing funds available for...

-The Indian Express A scrutiny of RBI’s earlier provisional disclosures and the government’s structured public remarks reveal a pattern: aware that much of the money would return, the government and the political establishment kept shifting the goalposts. New Delhi: “Tab (previous UPA) aawaz uthti thi ki kitna gaya, ab aawaz uth rahi hai ki kitna laye. Isse bada jeevan ka santosh kya ho sakta hai…Yahi toh sahi kadam hai…Woh zamana tha tab...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The flood situation in Assam and Bihar remained grim on Tuesday with more deaths reported and lakhs remaining affected while it improved slightly in West Bengal. Ten deaths were reported in Assam, taking the toll in the second wave of floods in the state to 28, officials said. The Brahmaputra river and its tributaries are flowing over the danger level snapping surface communications across Assam, even as flood waters submerged...

-The Hindu BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and NDA-ruled Bihar were among the worst performers The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation on Tuesday released the findings of the survey of 1.4 lakh rural households, undertaken by the Quality Council of India (QCI) between May and June this year. The survey, covering 4626 villages across all States and Union territories, claimed that 62.45% of the households had access to a toilet. The survey also pointed that...

-The Indian Express In 2016, south interior Karnataka recorded 22 per cent deficit rainfall during the southwest monsoon season (June-September). Reservoir levels in the Cauvery basin have fallen lower with back-to-back monsoon failure and Karnataka is headed to Assembly elections in barely eight months. If Maharashtra, particularly Marathwada, was the epicentre of drought in 2014 and 2015, that has now seemingly shifted deep southward to a stretch covering the old Mysore region...