-Livemint.com Digital transactions rose 13.5%—from Rs109.82 trillion in August to Rs124.69 trillion in September, the second highest for a month since the demonetisation exercise New Delhi: Digital transactions in September rose to the second highest monthly level by value since the government’s demonetisation exercise in November. Transactions through digital means rose 13.5% to Rs124.69 trillion in September from Rs109.82 trillion in August, according to provisional data released on Wednesday by the Reserve Bank...

-The Hindu Flight tickets are often cheaper than train fares on these services thanks to the flexi fare system Railway Minister Piyush Goyal’s announcement last week that the public transporter was reviewing the scheme of flexi fares introduced in September last year reflects the paradox of a surge in railway revenue even as premium trains run with vacant seats. While Railway revenues have surged by Rs. 500 crore in the one year since the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today sought the response of the Centre and the Election Commission on a joint petition filed by NGOs challenging amendments to the 2016 and 2017 Finance Acts that allegedly allow unfettered donations by corporate houses in India and foreign entities to parties in the name of "political bonds". According to advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, appearing for the NGOs Association of Democratic Reforms and...

-TheWire.in Innovate methods are being used to encourage people to end open defecation, but issues like the underutilisation of funds and use of coercive methods to achieve targets remain. The government has run rural sanitation programmes since the 1980s. Yet, according to Census 2011, only about 30% of all rural households have toilets, and even fewer use those toilets. By contrast, under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, several changes have taken place. Efforts towards...

-Livemint.com The government should put greater emphasis on behaviour change than construction of toilets In 2014, more than half of India’s population still practised open defecation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi set his government the goal of making the country open defecation-free in five years, by the 150th anniversary of M.K. Gandhi’s birthday in 2019, by launching the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA). Three years later, we are more than halfway into that period,...