-The Economic Times MUMBAI: Bank employees want branches to be closed until the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) supplies sufficient quantities of currency notes as irate customers increasingly harass staffers and indulge in arson and physical assault amid a cash shortage following demonetisation of high denomination notes last month. "RBI should take a view to stop banking operations for 15 days till adequate money is available. Let RBI close the banks till...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With over three weeks to go for the deadline to deposit invalidated 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, deposits in the scrapped currency continue to swell, straining the Centre's estimate of how much of the illegal tender might not come back into the system. Government data shows deposits in two high denomination notes by Saturday evening had totalled Rs 9.85 lakh crore. The imposing figure, shared by...

-Business Standard Indian economy is showing signs of distress all around and economists are not off the mark in their assessment When Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on November 8 and announced his government’s big move to tackle black money, currency counterfeiting and terror funding by banning old currency notes of Rs 500 & Rs 1,000, there were murmurs of protest. Since then, economists like Amartya Sen, Kaushik Basu and many...

-The Times of India In the finely balanced but lucrative economy of vegetable and fruit trade, demonetisation has had a bizarre effect. In distant rural areas, local vegetable prices — both wholesale and retail — have crashed as the oxygen of currency has been suddenly sucked out. Since the whole economy depended on cash, from transport to mandis to purchase prices, this is unsurprising. But in cities, where there is more liquidity,...

-The Hindu Maximum government, minimum governance: Pranab Bardhan Two prominent American economists have widely different views on India’s demonetisation drive. Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff is of the opinion that the move will help tackle corruption and tax evasion, while Pranab Bardhan, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, believes it cannot make “much of a dent in the long-term problem of corruption or black money.” Both of them shared their...