-The Indian Express For the Modi government and farmers, it’s not MSPs for rabi, but below-MSP rates for kharif crops now being marketed, that should really worry. New Delhi: Promising something is much easier than having the capacity to deliver. This is a reality that the Narendra Modi government may have to reckon with in the current kharif marketing season itself, even as it has announced a fresh round of minimum support...

-Mumbai Mirror The Modi government says it will double farmers’ real earnings by 2022, but so far, it has only delivered committees and reports. In early 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to double farmers’ income by 2022, and the government subsequently set up an inter-ministerial committee led by Ashok Dalwai, additional secretary in the agriculture ministry, to prepare a roadmap. About two weeks ago, the committee submitted its fourteenth and final...

-The Hindu Protesters seek implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report; Centre says formula for MSP is economically unviable As the thousands of protesting farmers affiliated to the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Tikait group) were prevented from entering Delhi in support of their demands, Minister of State for Agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Tuesday said the Centre would consider reducing GST on farm equipment to 5%. The farmers have demanded that farm equipment be...

-The Hindu People of different faiths must find a fit between their own distinctive way of reaching the ultimate and a common, basic framework for living together A Minister of the West Bengal government, Siddiqullah Chowdhury, reportedly remarked recently that for Muslims, “our holy scripture, the Quran Sharif, is supreme and if any constitutional provision... contradicts the Quran, then our scripture will prevail and not the Constitution”. This statement is deeply condemnable...

-The Hindu Business Line 2.45 million has been lost to urban sprawl between 2010-11 and 2015-16, says survey New Delhi: In an indication of further deepening of a crisis in the agricutural sector, the average size of operational agricultural holdings in the country has declined to 1.08 hectares (ha) in 2015-16 as compared to 1.15 ha in 2010-11, according to the freshly- released provisional agriculture census data released on Monday. Expectedly, the number...