After facing intense criticisms from various sections of the society following its policy of demonetisation during November-December, 2016, the NDA government has finally something solid to cheer about. Riding on the back of a normal monsoon, gross foodgrain production is likely to reach a record level of about 272.0 million tonnes in the crop year 2016-17. As per the second advance estimates of foodgrain production, which has been released by...

-Scroll.in India's social-sector spending remains woefully low and despite claims of being a pro-farmer Budget, the effective allocations are nearly the same as last year. Some commentators expected that the Union Budget 2017-’18 would craft a sharp departure from earlier budgets of this government. This it would do to mitigate the immense suffering of millions of casual workers, farmers and small traders caused by the “shock and awe” of the astoundingly callous...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) made the highest cash deposit among political parties during 50 days of demonetisation, reveals data analysis by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Income Tax department (I-T). The top 15 national and regional political parties deposited Rs 167 crore during demonetisation, data accessed by HT has revealed. Besides Rs 104 crore cash deposit by the BSP, other 14 parties have put Rs...

-Livemint.com Windfall gains and remonetisation claims are still uncertain, but the Indian economy has suffered a short-term pain for sure On 8 November, 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs1,000 notes, which constituted 86% of the Currency in circulation. Exactly three months later, where does the Indian economy stand today? In an interview to Mint after the Union budget, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das claimed that...

-The Indian Express Government could have undone the damage of demonetisation through the budget. The opportunity has been missed in deference to the whims of global finance. Since 97 per cent of the value of demonetised Currency has returned to the banks, causing, contrary to the government’s expectations, very little extinction of Currency, it is obvious that demonetisation has totally failed to achieve its purported objective of denting the black economy. It...