Business Standard News Digest: 'Economists talking nonsense' and more

Your daily dose of handpicked news from Business Standard and elsewhere

HDFC Bank MD, Aditya Puri does not believe what economists are saying about the economic consequences of demonetisation and has no qualms calling their concerns nonsense. Read about it here

Surat polishes 95% of all diamonds in the world and thanks to cash crunch as a result of demonetisation, the diamond and textile hub has come to a halt. Surat employs more than 2 million people in these industries and people expect things to get worse. Here is the Business Standard special report

This Bengaluru engineer and his father have become big players in oil and gas block auctions in India. Akhil Teja, a mechanical engineer quit his bank job to pursue his interest in oil exploration. Read about it here

Government just announced another income declaration scheme. But Chartered Accountants doubt whether declarations will get immunity from reassessment. The bill remains silent about these provisions. Read about it here

Demonetisation is causing trouble not only for the diamond and textile hub of Surat, it is now hurting many sectors. Business Standard has the details

Start-ups - How note ban is spoiling start-ups' business - Read

Tea-plantations - Tea plantation workers to face a major crisis in Dec - Read

Consumer durables - Consumer durable sales decline 30-40% in urban areas, 60-70% in rural - Read

Real-estate - Double whammy for property developers - Read

Agriculture - Cash starved farmers sell groundnuts in distress: price falls below MSP - Read

More from the internet

11 months after the terrorist attack on Pathankot, the government has contradicted itself in parliament and revealed that there were  4 terrorists and not 6 as it claimed earlier - Read

Aatish Taseer writes in the New York Times about the drought of ideas that the Indian right faces. “The right wing won an electoral mandate in 2014, but it still has a tremendous sense of intellectual inadequacy.” - Read

The government has been pushing ahead with its campaign asking India to go cashless. Nikhil Pahwa explains in a post on medianama why going cashless would be tough in India. - Read

Demonetisation has hurt different people in different ways and there have been stories of suffering from all over India. Indian Express today has a story of a daily wager who had to wait to cremate his wife as he had no cash left. - Read

Keep following the Business Standard News Digest, your daily dose of handpicked news.