-The Hindu Mill workers being trained to carry out cashless transactions Hooghly: Vijay Bahadur Chauhan, a 57-year-old jute mill worker, is listening attentively to what a bank official is saying. The official of a public sector bank is highlighting how a non-Android phone user, without Internet connectivity, can still carry out cashless transactions. Only a handful of workers at Hastings Jute Mill, one of India’s first jute-making factory, which began operations in 1875,...

-Hindustan Times A jute mill in West Bengal’s Howrah district has temporarily closed down citing its inability to pay workers in the absence of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that were scrapped by the Narendra Modi government. The notice by the management of Sree Hanuman Jute Mills that threw about 2,500 workers out of jobs was issued around 10pm on Monday, on a day chief minister Mamata Banerjee apprehended a loss...

-The Telegraph Lucknow: Puran Sharma needed cash to take care of his family's daily expenses. So he went to a health camp and got a vasectomy done. The 45-year-old day labourer returned home on Friday richer by Rs 2,000, though the money didn't come in 20 hundred-rupee notes as he had hoped it would. The amount would be transferred to his bank account. If Puran was a tad disappointed, the Uttar Pradesh villager...

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 Unlike most other pests, this one typically strikes very late, when the paddy crop is already 80-90 days old and in the final grain-filling stage. Hot and dry weather raises the chances of whitefly attacks, as Punjab’s farmers discovered for cotton last year. This year, it is humid and warm conditions, particularly in September, that has put paid to their hopes of a bumper paddy harvest. The villain: an...