-The Hindu Shaktikanta Das says Rs. 12.44 lakh crore in invalid notes may not have come back to banks The Finance Ministry on Thursday said the Rs. 12.44 lakh crore figure reported by the Reserve Bank of India as the amount having been depoSITed in banks since the November 8 demonetisation announcement could be inflated due to double-counting. Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said the RBI had infused three times the...

-Scroll.in Panchayats have no funds to hire and pay hordes of workers forced to return home from cities. Demonetisation has exposed the fragile state of the government’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. In Uttar Pradesh, in particular, an ever-burgeoning army of migrant labourers returning to their villages for lack of work in the cities, as a direct result of the cash crisis, has led to a mad scramble for employment...

-PTI According to the study, women who use open defecation SITes are twice as likely to get raped compared to women using a home toilet. Washington: Women in India who use open defecation are prone to sexual violence and infrastructure improvements can provide them with some level of protection, a US univerSITy researcher has said. “Open defecation places women at uniquely higher risk of one type of sexual violence: non-partner,” says Approva...

-Hindustan Times Chinsurah, West Bengal: A 163-year-old municipality administering a small town in West Bengal has shown the world how to manage solid waste in an eco-friendly way, potentially giving urban planners and administrators the key to tackling one of the biggest civic problems. The initiatives of Uttarpara-Kotrung municipality helped the Kolkata Solid Waste Management Improvement Project win a global award, defeating nearest contenders Auckland and Milan in urban solid waste management...

-The Hindu On the tenth anniversary of the historic passage of the Forest Rights Act, tribal resistance to defend their rights is growing even as government after government tries to dilute its provisions On this day 10 years ago the historic Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act was passed in the Lok Sabha. Its conception and passage was the result of the decades of struggles and...