-The Hindu Stories of distress, following a year of drought and now demonetisation, reverberate through State BENGALURU: First, the water in their fields disappeared, and now, the cash in the market. For Rajaiah of Boovanahalli in Hassan district, the cash crunch following demonetisation has seen his yet-to-be harvested maize shrouded in uncertainty. “There are no merchants to purchase as they have no cash,” he said. There is desperation, however, as his entire produce...
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How India's currency ban is hurting the poor -Soutik Biswas
-BBC India's latest crackdown on black money is turning out to be a nightmare for the poor and the middle class. Three days after 500 ($7) and 1,000 rupee notes were withdrawn as part of anti-corruption measures, hordes of panicky people are thronging banks and ATMS to deposit expired money and withdraw lower denominations to run their lives. The queues are getting longer and angrier, and despite the government's loud promises, banks and...
More »Demonetisation leaves lakhs of tea, jute workers in Bengal, Northeast unpaid -Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Amitava Banerjee and Rahul Karmakar
-Hindustan Times Kolkata/ Darjeeling/ Guwahati: More than five lakh workers in West Bengal’s biggest labour-intensive industries of tea and jute have not got wages since Wednesday when the union government withdrew two high-denomination currency notes. A similar predicament exists in neighbouring Assam and the rest of the Northeast, which has tea estates in remote areas where currency notes will take days to arrive. In Bengal, owners of several tea gardens and jute mills...
More »In one stroke, demonetisation has shaken the trust our monetary system is based on -Devangshu Datta
-Scroll.in Even the long-term benefits of the move seem to be outweighed by the heavy costs and disruption it would cause, particularly for the lower income groups. The demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes came as a surprise to almost everyone. The details of re-monetisation are still to become entirely clear. What follows is a set of personal opinions of likely outcomes arising from this move to demonetise. Each...
More »Freedom in peril -R Ramakumar
-Frontline The government’s passage of the Aadhaar Bill in complete disregard of even basic parliamentary procedures and in subversion of an ongoing judicial process puts at risk a number of constitutional rights and liberties of citizens. The benefits cited are just ploys to realise a neoliberal dream. “Congressmen are dancing as if [Aadhaar] was a herb for all cures. With the Supreme Court pulling up the Centre, people are now seeking...
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