-The Hindu Business Line Kirana and tea shops are doing better than businesses that involve discretionary spending The Micro-finance industry (MFI) is cursed and blessed at the same time. When there were indications that the micro-finance sector is overheating, with high growth rates, multiple lending and oppressive loan recovery practices, the withdrawal of specified bank notes (SBN) hit them. There were reports of stress from Uttar Pradesh and it appeared that there...

-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...

-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...

-The Times of India BHOPAL: Starved of cash, 15 farmers of a village in Gwalior deposited 45 quintals of paddy as their children's school fees on Saturday. The school management sold the crop at a mandi and got a cheque of Rs 58,500. Bhitarwar region of Gwalior is known as the rice bowl of Madhya Pradesh, and paddy is the main crop of the kharif season. Villages here have run out of...

-The Indian Express It distracts our attention from vital questions of institutional health and economic governance. During the second half of UPA 2, the press, with some justification, created a frenzy of anxiety over India’s future, especially its economic future. After two and a half years of the Narendra Modi government, if the same standards of concern about India’s future were brought to bear on the present government, what would the heightened...