-Livemint.com Several Bundelkhand farmers contend that demonetisation is a direct attack on the class divide and has reduced the rising gap between the rich and the poor New Delhi: In April this year, before the monsoon set in on parched Bundelkhand, Ajay Tripathi was witness to countless cattle deaths and fellow villagers migrating in hordes to escape the aftermath of consecutive years of drought. For the young farmer from Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba...

-The Hindu To prevent further damage to the economy and to relieve distress, demonetisation should be revoked immediately Without adequate preparation or thought, the monetary authorities and the government have taken a drastic step declaring as worthless over 86 per cent by value of the currency notes in circulation with the public. A prior large increase of lower denomination notes should have been ensured through banks and ATMs, so that overall money...

-Livemint.com Pulses are important from the perspectives of food security, environmental sustainability and balanced nutrition Most pulses such as pigeon pea (tur dal), black gram (urad), green gram (mung), field beans (waal), moth beans (matki) and horse gram (kulith) are native to the Indian subcontinent and have been an integral part of our diet for centuries. However, the single-minded focus on cereals over the last 50 years—the green revolution in wheat and...

-The Hindu Business Line NEW DELHI: The Centre will meet representatives of the Indian Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) every month to take stock of retail prices of pulses that still rule high, as well as supply issues. This was decided at a meeting between Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and IGPA members here on Thursday evening. The meeting comes soon after the Centre’s decision to enhance the buffer stock limit of...

Rising prices of dal: How to deal with it? The 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. In India, however, ordinary citizens are under enormous duress due to the skyrocketing prices of dal/ lentils since the last one year. The website of Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs shows that dal prices varied across places. For example, the...