-Hindustan Times While demonetisation was subsequently described as a policy boost to promoting digital payments, the original policy had very different stated targets. November 8, 2021 marks five years of demonetisation in India. On this day in 2016, in a televised address at 8 pm, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that currency notes of ₹500 and ₹1000 -- these two denominations were 86% of the currency in circulation at the time in...

-The Hindu There remain delays in the stage where the Central government transfers wages to the workers’ accounts There is a famous parable of the 13th-century mystic Mullah Nasruddin. He was once spotted under a street light searching frantically for a key that he had lost. A passer-by noticed the frazzled Nasruddin and stopped to help him. After both of them spent a long time searching for the key, the exasperated passer-by...

-Scroll.in A viral video of the Hyderabad Police stopping people in the street and looking through their devices has sparked concern about the legality of such methods. In several cases over the last couple of years, the police have highlighted WhatsApp chats found on phones to explain why they needed to keep people in custody. This strategy has been deployed most recently in narcotics cases involving Hindi film actress Rhea Chakraborty and Aryan...

-Newsclick.in On Saturday, the Ministry of Rural Development denied that the rural jobs scheme was facing a shortage of funds. Its response, however, “leaves many questions unanswered,” according to civil society members. Activists have questioned the Centre’s response to media Reports on the shortage of available funds for the rural employment guarantee scheme in the current financial year, by alleging that it is “misleading” and that it leaves many raised questions “unanswered.” Last...

-TheWire.in A new report has studied 17 alleged extrajudicial killings in the state between March 2017 and March 2018, and found that no police officers have been held accountable in any of them. New Delhi: A new report by civil society organisations has highlighted how a culture of impunity is allegedly being pushed at all levels after ‘extrajudicial killings’ in Uttar Pradesh, with the police regularly being let off the hook for...