-The Hindu Business Line Scarcity of ?100 notes hits kharif harvesting; decline in demand worsens situation Hyderabad: Ram Singh (name changed), a 45-year-old farmer near Ranjim, a tehsil in Chhattisgarh, stood impatiently in the long queue, waiting for his turn to swap a bunch of old notes for new. “I don’t want the new notes. I’m desperately looking for ?100 notes that I need to pay to the labourers that I have...

-The Hindu With little cash in hand, small traders and shopkeepers are unable to keep their businesses running Surendar’s move from Bihar to Perambalur in the heart of Tamil Nadu in search of a livelihood has turned sour over the past few days. A school dropout, Surendar, who made a living selling pani-poori from a cart in this town, has seen his business plummet since the November 8 demonetisation announcement. “Everyone brings...

There are reports from all over the country that the recent decision by the government to demonetise currency notes of Rs. 500/- and Rs. 1000/- denomination has affected everyone. However the consequence of this financial measure is lopsided and it will be mainly borne by the farmers, informal sector workers, women and the financially excluded.   Please check the links/ urls below this news alert to know everything about demonetisation. Till a few...

-The Indian Express Agriculture’s contribution to poverty reduction is five times more than that of metropolitan centres Speaking at the third BRICS Urbanisation Forum in Visakhapatnam on September 14, Deputy Chairman of the Niti Ayog, Arvind Panagariya, announced that “Without cities we can’t grow rapidly”. He added, “urbanisation plays an important role in poverty alleviation”. Both claims are exaggerated and somewhat misleading. A recent report prepared for the UN points out that, over...

-The Hindu New Delhi: Parliament’s Standing Committee on Agriculture may have expressed concern at the unscientific and excessive use of pesticides in agriculture that pose a threat both to the environment and human health. But experts say their judicious use, combined with safe agricultural practices, is the only way out as the country’s growing demand for food cannot be met through organic farming. In its recently presented report in Parliament for 2015-16,...