Five must-read stories—January 17

Amartya Sen calls demonetisation "a ham-handed policy," causing serious job losses

More than two months after the demonetisation, Nobel Laureate and economist Amartya Sen tells The Hindu that any proper “economic reasoning could not have sensibly led to such a ham-handed policy.” He predicts that the demonetisation will hit the economy quite drastically.

Kashmir trolls force Dangal star to delete FB post

Reacting to trolls on social media, 16-year-old Dangal actor Zaira Wasim, posted an “apology” on Facebook for joining films and meeting with J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, only to delete it later. Wasim, in her post, claimed she was “not forced to apologise by anyone,” reports The Hindu.

FMCG sector's highest paid CEO is a 94-year-old school drop-out

The 94-year-old Dharampal Gulati of MDH is India's highest paid consumer product CEO, reports The Economic Times. The fifth grade school dropout took home more than Rs 21 crore as salary last fiscal, higher than Adi Godrej and Vivek Gambhir of Godrej Consumer.

Drone vigil on Noamundi mines, a first for India

Drone surveillance for mining safety debuted in India on Monday at Tata Steel's Noamundi iron ore mines in West Singhbhum, a sophisticated monitoring technology to alert authorities to subsidence and other threats and avert tragedies, reports The Telegraph.

Merkel, Hollande give defiant replies to Trump

Angela Merkel and François Hollande have responded curtly but defiantly after Donald Trump cast further doubt on his commitment to Nato and gave strong hints that he would not support EU cohesion once in office, reports The Guardian.