-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...

-PTI While the Government and banks want transparency from citizens, they refuse to be transparent themselves as the RBI again refuses to respond to RTI applications seeking reasons for Demonetisation Why were Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 notes demonetised by the government? Fifty days after the government announced that these notes would cease to be legal tender, Reserve Bank of India feels that the reasons behind the sudden announcement cannot be made public. The...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has given out cooking gas connections free of cost to 1.5 crore poor households under the 'Ujjwala' scheme, achieving the target set for the 2016-17 financial year in eight months on the back of a massive outreach in rural areas. The scheme was launched on May 1 by PM Narendra Modi at a rally in UP's Ballia district. The scheme envisages providing LPG connection...

-The Indian Express For the poor, with little cash in the first place, digital promises to ‘swipe’ them out, before their marginalisation is even addressed. Demonetisation is, by its very nature, an autocratic, coercive step. The demonetisation of November 2016 has affected every single Indian. We are, as usual, persuaded to bear the pain and suffering, to “sacrifice” for the nation. The rhetoric continues but it now seems clear that the objective...

A press statement issued from the Right to Food Campaign on 27 December, 2016 says that the demonetisation of old currency notes of Rs. 500/- and Rs. 1000/- denomination wreaked havoc on the livelihood security of the poor people. The labouring and toiling masses, who are mostly engaged in the informal sector, have been adversely affected due to the scrapping of old currency notes of Rs. 500/- and Rs. 1000/-...