-The Hindu Centre relaxes curbs, allows farmers to buy seeds with old Rs. 500 notes. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley directed commercial bank chiefs on Monday to focus their attention on rural India’s cash crunch over the next 40 days, with a war chest of Rs. 35,000 crore for providing credit to farmers by December. The Centre also relaxed its demonetisation policy for high-value currency notes further by allowing farmers to buy seeds...
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Jean Dreze, economist and a leading advocate of welfare policies, interviewed by Vasudha Venugopal (The Economic Times)
-The Economic Times "Demonetisation in a booming economy is like shooting at the tyres of a racing car," says development economist Jean Drèze . A leading advocate of welfare policies, Drèze who was a member of the National Advisory Council during the UPA regime, tells ET that the sudden move to demonetize high-value currency notes has created a scary situation for people who live on the margin of subsistence, and that...
More »Small farmers, farm workers bear the brunt as cash becomes scarce
-The Hindu Stories of distress, following a year of drought and now demonetisation, reverberate through State BENGALURU: First, the water in their fields disappeared, and now, the cash in the market. For Rajaiah of Boovanahalli in Hassan district, the cash crunch following demonetisation has seen his yet-to-be harvested maize shrouded in uncertainty. “There are no merchants to purchase as they have no cash,” he said. There is desperation, however, as his entire produce...
More »Rabi sowing slows down
-The Hindu Business Line Bengaluru/ Ahmedabad: Though acreage under the main rabi (winter) crops, such as wheat, gram and mustard continued to rise, overall sowing for the season across the country has turned sluggish as cash-strapped farmers have slowed down planting. According to preliminary data released by the Agriculture Ministry, acreage under rabi crops till November 18 stood lower, at 241.73 lakh hectares, compared to 243.38 lakh ha in the corresponding period...
More »Prof. Abhijit Sen, economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, interviewed by The Economic Times
-The Economic Times In a chat with ET Now, Abhijit Sen, Professor, JNU, says this is a whole sector in which there are very large cash demands for production at one or two points in time and this happens to be one. Edited excerpts * The government has hiked MSPs for rabi crop. How do you see the impact of higher MSPs for output and demand for rabi playing out? The increases are normal...
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