-Scroll.in India’s first chief statistician, Pronab Sen, is now country director of the International Growth Centre, which seeks to build effective growth facilities through engagement between policymakers and researchers. In this interview to Scroll.in, he speaks on the 50 days of demonetisation, its failings, its severe impact on the poor, the loss of credibility of the Reserve Bank of India, the push to make India a cashless or less-cash economy, and...

-Down to Earth Government’s policy decisions and ground reports are in conflict with official data on sowing, production and agriculture insurance The Centre’s claim of 94 million metric tonnes (MT) (2015-16) of wheat production, good sowing acreage and success of agriculture insurance scheme is not in sync with reality as government’s own data do not match agriculture ministry’s claims.   The data related to increased acreage, bumper production and success of agriculture...

-Livemint.com Prices may dip further once the harvest from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh hits markets in January New Delhi: After moong, prices of arhar, a major rain-fed kharif crop, have plunged below support prices in major growing states such as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh where the crop has reached markets. The dip in wholesale prices follows a record crop due to a normal south-west monsoon and farmers increasing its acreage, taking a...

-Hindustan Times The government’s decision to scrap high-value currency has sent wholesale vegetable prices crashing to rock-bottom levels, bringing misery to millions of farmers hoping for good returns for their produce after two successive drought years. Onions sold for just Re 1 per kilogram in wholesale markets at Madhya Pradesh’s Neemuch and Mandsaur this week while tomatoes cost less than Rs 2 per kg in Andhra Pradesh and Chandigarh. A kilogram of cauliflower...

-Livemint.com Sowing of wheat, the main winter or rabi crop, 0.9% lower than the normal area of 25.8 million hectares; rice sowing lagging by 33% New Delhi: Sowing of winter crops is 81% complete and overall planting is close to the normal acreage for this time of the year, shows data released by the farm ministry on Friday. Sowing of rice has been affected due to a deficit in the north-east monsoon in...