-IndiaSpend This puts in peril the government's target to achieve 25 billion digital transactions in 2017-18 The value of digital transactions nationwide declined marginally (1.5%) to Rs 92.6 lakh crore ($1.4 trillion) in February 2017 from Rs 94 lakh crore in November 2016 ($1.42 trillion), according to representative data (provisional) on electronic payments released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The data do not cover all transactions across all banks. But, card...
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Tamil Nadu scales down foodgrains target
-The Times of India CHENNAI: Failure of monsoon and farmers' distress have forced the state government to scale down the target for foodgrains production for the next financial year to 100 lakh tonnes, a 32% fall from the initial target set for the current financial year. Announcing this while presenting the budget, finance minister D Jayakumar said a slew of measures was being taken to overcome the water shortage. Considering that...
More »Why Are Global Trade Rules Not on the Agenda During Indian Elections? -Shalini Bhutani
-TheWire.in In a country where a majority of the population is engaged in increasingly unviable agriculture, shouldn’t politicians talk about the trade rules that make it so? One cannot help but draw parallels between the elections in the US and those in the states in India. While it is best left to psephologists to analyse voting patterns and election results, it’s telling to compare the issues on which the elections are...
More »In Himachal Pradesh, a village is using the law to take back forest land from the Forest Department -Shazia Nigar
-Scroll.in The Forest Rights Act recognises the rights of forest dwelling communities and entrusts them with the responsibility for conservation. The residents of Gunehar village in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district are attempting to use the Forest Rights Act to challenge the state Forest Department’s decision to hand over two hectares of local forest land to the Wildlife Department to construct an office complex. At the end of December, the Gunehar panchayat...
More »Ryot Empowerment: Giving effective voice to rural producers through FPOs
-The Indian Express Farmer producer organisations have truly taken off. Now’s the time to create their own lobbying platform. In the summer of 2011, as the managing director of the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), an autonomous society under the Union Agriculture Ministry, I addressed a group of Uttar Pradesh government officials in Lucknow. My hosts politely sat through my presentation and near-evangelical pitch, as I pushed the idea of promoting farmer...
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