-The Indian Express In all, the 42 RRBs have sanctioned Stand Up India loans to 536 people — 97 under the SC head, 32 in the ST category and 407 general category women. Three RRBs have not sanctioned a single such loan to general category women. Every bank has been told that it will be your responsibility to ensure that wherever you have a branch, you have to give loans to two...

-Scroll.in The Swaraj India leader says the economy needs a big boost in the rural areas and for small scale manufacturers. In July, Yogendra Yadav, the national president of the Swaraj India party, embarked on a nationwide movement accompanied by activists and hundreds of farmers. Under the banner of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee, a coalition of more than 150 farmer unions across the country, the yatra was planned...

-NetworkIdeas.org A slew of numbers released recently point to rather peculiar and contrary trends in India’s balance of payments. Exports have revived but the trade and current account deficits widen, pointing to an excess of foreign exchange expenditure relative to earnings. While the widening current account deficit points to a weakening balance of payments position, foreign exchange reserves are at record levels. The foreign exchange reserve increase is funded largely by capital...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A last opportunity for untrained elementary school teachers to retain their jobs has put the spotlight on private schools. Most of the million-plus such teachers across the country teach in private institutes. Bengal too has come under unwelcome glare: it has 1.3 lakh untrained teachers, second only to Bihar, according to human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar. The dubious statistics came to light after the National Institute of Open...

-Outlook According to the Labour Bureau’s Employment Unemployment Surveys, total employment in the country shrank by about 0.4 per cent annually between 2013-14 and 2015-16, a number which corresponds to 37.4 lakh people being unemployed. There has been an absolute decline in employment – number of people with jobs – between 2013-14 and 2015-16, possibly for the first time since independence, a new study published in the EPW journal says. Three...