-The Hindu Business Line Rising pest attacks are mounting pressure on cotton farmers even as prices play truant. Rajeshbhai Patel is not amused. The farmer in Kadi, northern Gujarat grew cotton on four bigha in this year’s kharif season, instead of 11 in 2016. He had reduced the acreage fearing increasing costs owing to pests attacks. But as cotton prices rule at unusually high levels in the ongoing harvest season, he...

-Firstpost.com I fear this budget. I fear that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley might announce an idea that I have liked and advocated: The idea of a Universal Basic Income. I fear it because Jaitley may use this label to justify something quite the opposite. In the process, he might ruin a good idea. Straws in the wind indicate that he might try something to this effect. Demonetisation was part of a grand...

-The Hindu As Parliament prepares to convene again after a winter session washed out due to the Opposition’s protest on demonetisation, it is worth asking why political mobilisation against the exercise is proving to be so difficult Demonetisation has been the most hotly debated topic since November 8, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the high-denomination notes then in circulation would cease to be legal tender. In a single stroke, nearly...

-The Indian Express EC had asked the central bank to relax the weekly bank withdrawal limit from Rs 24,000 to Rs 2 lakh for candidates contesting elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur. New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has shot down the Election Commission’s (EC) proposal to relax the weekly withdrawal limit for those contesting the Assembly elections, prompting an angry reaction from the poll panel, which...

-The Hindu The primary aim of the demonetisation exercise was to tap black money. To mark the last day for depositing the demonetised notes, on December 31, 2016, the Prime Minister, in his address to the nation, fully acknowledged the great hardship suffered by common people due to the serious delay in making the new currency notes available in the banks, ATMs and rural areas, and thanked them for the faith...