-The indian Express Govt hopes demonetisation will accelerate India's drive towards a cashless economy. The challenge, however, is to get the unbanked millions into the net. Mumbai: FOR MOST of this year, bankers at State Bank of India, the country’s largest bank, were trying hard to market Point of Sales (POS) machines for debit and credit cards to small businesses and establishments. This would give the bank access to funds at relatively...

-The Economic Times Farmers accustomed to decades of government policy failure are willing to bear the pain caused by the government’s decision to recall Rs 500 & 1000 bills, but engineering a systematic failure of the rural cooperative banking sector would be an unpardonable desecration. Earlier rural bank branches were given a step motherly treatment: Rural cooperative bank branches were not replenished with lower denomination currency, while the newer higher denomination notes...

-The Indian Express In wheat, the situation has been worsened by stocks with FCI — at 18.84 million tonnes (mt) as on November 1 — at a nine-year low. New Delhi: Wheat prices have spiralled, reflecting the precarious domestic stocks position and concerns over production of new crop because farmers are unable to arrange sufficient cash for cultivation operations, following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. Wheat was sold...

-Scroll.in The author of a paper published by a research institute under the Ministry of Finance expands on its conclusions. The drying up of cash has thrown the lives of millions of Indians in disarray. But many facing hardship support the government’s move. In Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, a farmer who did not have cash to buy seeds and fertilisers, said, “Now when rich people deposit money in the bank, the income tax people...

-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...