-Livemint.com There is an emphasis on increasing farm productivity, but this might not always align with greater profitability While inaugurating the Krishi Mela at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for a “three-pillared” approach to farming, which included crop farming, agro forestry—that is, planting timber trees along farm peripheries—and animal husbandry. This is an important enunciation of how Indian agriculture works as an integrated system in...

-The Hindu Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, on Wednesday, held an inter-ministerial meeting to discuss the spiralling prices of food and carve out a strategy to cool inflation. Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu attended the meeting. Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian was also present. During the meeting, discussions were held to devise ways to meet the GAP between demand...

-The Indian Express Muslims have among the lowest suicide rates in the country at 7. The suicide rate among Dalits in Gujarat and Tripura is nearly 1½ times the overall suicide rate in each state. This emerges from government data collected on suicides across the country based on caste and religion. The data, collected by NCRB in 2014 but never published, were accessed by The Indian Express through RTI. They show the average...

-The Indian Express The fight against malnutrition depends on more than economic growth. The data from the National Family Health Survey or NFHS-4 (although only for 13 states and 2 UTs) confirms the finding from the Rapid Survey on Children (RSoC) of 2015 that there has been a significant decline in child malnutrition in the country during the last decade. In spite of a number of initiatives having been launched to combat...

-The Financial Express The previous government gave in to Luddite, anti-development NGOs and deferred the introduction of GM food crops in our country. The present government seems to be held in thrall by an unusual coalition of nativists and leftists. In the process, the Indian farmer is suffering. It appears that, for several years now, we have been importing edible oil derived from GM oilseeds. The oil importers lobby are OK...