-Scroll.in Panchayats have no funds to hire and pay hordes of workers forced to return home from cities. Demonetisation has exposed the fragile state of the government’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. In Uttar Pradesh, in particular, an ever-burgeoning army of migrant labourers returning to their villages for lack of work in the cities, as a direct result of the cash crisis, has led to a mad scramble for employment...

-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...

-Hindustan Times Chandigarh: ON FARM FRONT Food security of the nation continues to be in the hands of Punjab that contributes the maximum share of wheat to the central pool but its farmers need reforms, not sops, to find a way out of the debt trap. Haryana started at a disadvantage but is gaining ground though the state govt’s role leaves much to be desired. Punjab awaits another revolution The tumultuous trifurcation of Punjab...

-The Hindu Economic growth alone is not enough to achieve key Sustainable Development Goals. It must translate into jobs for the poor and marginalised India is the fastest growing large economy in the world today. Despite this, one in every five Indians is poor. Multilateral agencies as well as governments are playing an active role in understanding problems relating to poverty and hunger and finding solutions to them. But these challenges are...

-Hindustan Times Engineering appears to be losing its attraction as a top career option among Indians. The number of students getting admitted to government and private engineering colleges and institutes — excluding IITs and NITs — is recording a steady decline, by at least 100,000 in the past two years. Barely half of the number of seats across the country got filled last year. The All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) discussed the worrying...