-The Telegraph Nagpur: A special investigation team will probe the alleged harassment of poor women borrowers in Maharashtra by loan recovery agents of micro-finance institutions, the state government announced today after month-long street protests and an Assembly debate. Junior home minister Deepak Kesarkar assured an agitated Assembly that the state was considering a law similar to one Andhra Pradesh had enacted in 2011 to regulate the MFIs' lending and loan recovery practices. About...

-Frontline.in Interview with Utsa Patnaik, professor emerita of economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. By T.K. RAJALAKSHMI THE FALLOUT of the decision of the National Democratic Alliance government to demonetise currency of higher denominations has been felt across all sections of people. There are concerns that it will lead to an overall economic slowdown given the acute shortage of currency for industrial and agricultural operations. The impact on agriculture and those dependent on agriculture...

-The Hindu Only Chandrababu Naidu and Shivraj Singh Chauhan will remain members Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, Tripura’s Manik Sarkar and Puducherry’s V. Narayanasamy have refused the Narendra Modi government’s invitation to join a sub-committee of Chief Ministers on digitisation and cashless transactions. The panel is tasked with suggesting possible ways to ease problems in the wake of the Centre’s demonetisation decision, sources in the Janata Dal (United), the CPI(M) and the Congress confirmed. The panel...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: When seven days of standing in long queues outside banks yielded no results, a 35-year-old scrap dealer allegedly committed suicide by hanging from a ceiling fan at his house in northeast Delhi’s Mustafabad on Thursday night. Mohammed Shakeel was reportedly frustrated because he couldn’t exchange old notes worth Rs 5,000. He had to pay instalments of two loans as well. Shakeel’s family said he went to banks early morning,...

-The Indian Express The State Bank of India, Maharashtra Gramin Bank and Nanded District Cooperative Bank have branches in Malegaon. But only the SBI and Gramin Bank branches are dispensing cash. Malegaon (Nanded): The family of Pralhad Ingole, a farmer who owns about 6 acre of land, is struggling in the absence of cash. The lone ATM in their village of Malegaon in Nanded district, operated by the State Bank of...