-The Hindu The slowdown in private investments is visible chiefly in the informal sector, not the corporate sector It is now well recognised that there is an investment slowdown in India, which is delaying a full-blooded recovery in the economy. Private investments, the principle engine of growth, are out of steam. The fall is so severe that it has more than offset the government’s macroeconomic stimulus of increased public investments. The slowdown stARTed...
More »SEARCH RESULT
'Formalising' the Economy: What's in It for Workers? -Karuna Dietrich Wielenga and Shashank Kela
-TheWire.in The Modi government’s attempts to reshape the economy lie entirely in the financial realm; they come on the back of concerted efforts to strip workers of legal protection in not just the informal sector, but also the formal. The Narendra Modi government has made two major interventions in the economic sphere, demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST), with the ostensible aim of expanding the formal sector at the expense...
More »Pesticide used by Maharashtra victims banned in Punjab -Shishir Arya
-The Times of India NAGPUR (Maharashtra): Even as the issue of pesticide inhalation deaths dog Maharashtra government, Punjab has come up with a ban on monocrotophos as well as 19 other pesticides. As a state can impose ban on a pesticide for not more than 60 days, in Punjab orders to stop issuing fresh licences as well as renewal have been issued. Accidental inhalation of pesticides led to 52 deaths in Vidarbha...
More »India 'illegally' importing genetically modified soya seeds, allege farmers and food activists -Jayashree Nandi
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Farmer and food activists have alleged that genetically modified soya bean seeds are being imported "illegally" for cultivation, in violation of a directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) notification of 2006 that prohibits the import of GMOs without approval from the genetic engineering appraisal committee (GEAC). Some activists have also found imported packaged foods containing GM ingredients being sold in depARTmental stores, one of which is...
More »Budget 2018 and Agriculture: MSP promise fails to cut ice with farmers -PARThasarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express For farmers like Bhawane, it’s not the promised MSPs, but the prices for the chana and tur/arhar (pigeon-pea) they would be selling in the next fortnight or so that’s the real concern. Latur: Dhananjay Bhawane has little hope of the standing chana (chickpea) crop on eight out of his 10-acre field fetching anywhere near the government’s minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 4,400 per quintal, when it is...
More »