-The Hindu With grocers and cold storage owners refusing to accept scrapped currency notes, farmers are struggling to get potato seeds while landless labourers are forced to forgo their food. Chitra Bag and her family of six are eating less these days. They make do with one meal instead of the usual three meals, despite a gruelling 8-10 hours of work daily as landless farm labourers. Even though vegetables, grown around their...

-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement demonetising high denomination notes on November 8, 2016, will do little to address the prime objective of flushing out black money but will adversely affect the economy in the short term, especially the informal sector, which is predominant in India, says M. Govinda Rao, a Member of the Fourteenth Finance Commission and Emeritus Professor, National Institute of Public...

-The New Indian Express BHUBANESWAR: Gopal Krushna Panda was happy to hear the announcement on demonetisation of higher currency notes with a hope that the black money will be wiped out. But his happiness was short-lived as the currency crisis gripped the nation. A native of Gopalpur village in Balasore district, Panda requires at least Rs 40,000 to harvest paddy from his 10 acres of agricultural field. While the paddy has already...

-Livemint.com Many urban workers go back to their villages instead of settling in cities with their families, a study shows One of the biggest announcements after Narendra Modi assumed office was the announcement of the smart cities project, which involves overhauling of urban infrastructure in 100 Indian cities. In April, Niti Aayog chairman Arvind Panagariya predicted India’s urbanization rate to increase to over 60% in the next 30 years, assuming a 7-9%...

-The Economic Times "Demonetisation in a booming economy is like shooting at the tyres of a racing car," says development economist Jean Drèze . A leading advocate of welfare policies, Drèze who was a member of the National Advisory Council during the UPA regime, tells ET that the sudden move to demonetize high-value currency notes has created a scary situation for people who live on the margin of subsistence, and that...