-The Hindu The tremendous power of the software industry in India may help explain why the disruptive effects of demonetisation are being taken lightly Evidence is mounting of the disruptive effects of the recent move to renew currency notes, known as “demonetisation”. Disruption is actually a mild expression. What is happening is a catastrophe for large sections of the population. Farmers have dumped vegetables by the roadside for want of a remunerative...

-The Hoot Anupam Mishra was a greatly respected journalist who stayed away from the limelight but wrote with insight on water and the environment. Anupam Mishra, who died in Delhi on December 19 at the age of 68, had been one of the most respected persons in the Hindi media for at least two decades. For several years he had been the editor of Hindi Gandhi Marg, a much-admired  journal with...

-TheWire.in The official line seems to be, ‘Show me your money but I won’t show you my records’. New Delhi: While the Reserve Bank of India has been forthcoming in placing on its website the minutes of meetings of all committees that provide it with advice, an RTI activist has accused it of deliberately withholding information on the recent demonetisation exercise. Seen against the backdrop of a top finance ministry official –...

-Livemint.com Economist Esther Duflo on demonetisation impact, role of randomized control trials in policymaking, low priority assigned to health and education in India New Delhi: India’s demonetisation of high-value currency notes is a dramatic example of a policy announcement made without any serious thought given to implementation, said Esther Duflo, one of the leading development economists of the world and a professor at the department of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of...

-Hindustan Times The government’s decision to scrap high-value currency has sent wholesale vegetable prices crashing to rock-bottom levels, bringing misery to millions of farmers hoping for good returns for their produce after two successive drought years. Onions sold for just Re 1 per kilogram in wholesale markets at Madhya Pradesh’s Neemuch and Mandsaur this week while tomatoes cost less than Rs 2 per kg in Andhra Pradesh and Chandigarh. A kilogram of cauliflower...