-The Hindu To show Indian Agriculture as being net taxed to argue for the farm laws has poor conceptual validity Over the past three decades, a major rationale offered in favour of liberalising Indian Agriculture was that farmers were “net taxed”. In other words, incomes of farmers were kept artificially lower than what they should have been. It was argued that this “net taxation” existed because protectionist policies deprived farmers of higher...

-The Hindu “Only implementation of strategies is being monitored, rather than actual outcomes” New Delhi: In the last year of its mission to double farmers income, the Centre admits that no actual assessment of farm income has been carried out since 2013. Ashok Dalwai, head of the committee on doubling farmers income, told The Hindu that only the implementation of strategies is being monitored, rather than actual outcomes. He cautioned that the impact...

-Down to Earth In 2019, India imported around 15 million tons of edible oils worth approximately Rs 7,300 crore Edible oils are indispensable in the Indian kitchen. But it might be surprising to many that India imports most of the oil it consumes, unlike most other agricultural products which are produced locally. Even after having a diverse agro-climatic conditions, abundant land and large sections of population depending on Agriculture, why does India have...

-The Indian Express It is the rural middle class — which experienced a roughly four-decade spell of prosperity from the 1970s and now has its back to the wall — that’s at the forefront of the agitation against the farm reform laws. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has defended his government’s agricultural reform laws by invoking Chaudhary Charan Singh and pointing to the “dayaniya sthiti (sorry plight)” of marginal farmers. These below-one-hectare cultivators...

-Down to Earth Rs 2,326.88 crore of Rs 139,370.15 crore was disbursed to those ineligible for the scheme; Rs 231.76 crore has been recovered The Union government was yet to spend Rs 23,727 crore of the Rs 139,370.15 crore it has allocated for Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) since its inception in February 2019. The amount is around 17 per cent of what was to be disbursed under the direct benefit transfer...