-Financial Express The government has asked the Ashok Dalwai committee to oversee the implementation of its recommendations so that the promise of doubling farmers’ income is achieved by 2022. The committee on doubling farmers’ income (DFI), headed by Ashok Dalwai, the CEO of Rainfed Area Authority, will act as an ‘empowered body’ to coordinate with different ministries as well as among various departments within the agriculture ministry, officials said. The empowered group will...

-Scroll.in The former Planning Commission member explains why the country needs to tread carefully on this idea. On January 1, when Indian news agency ANI asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the government’s plans to reduce agrarian distress, he said loan waivers do not work as a very small segment of farmers take loans from banks. “A majority of them take loans from money lenders,” said Modi. “When governments make such announcements,...

-The Hindu In addition to reforming the credit system, agriculture should be made profitable Rural agrarian distress is firmly at the centre of the national discourse today, triggered by the recent Assembly election results in the Hindi heartland as well as continuous farmer agitations in the past two years (picture). Just a month ago, the farmers’ march in Delhi highlighted the reality of their deprivation, anger and resolve. Quite remarkably, their presence...

-IndiaToday.in PM Modi's constituency Varanasi failed to find a place in UP Swachh Ward Contest. Lucknow: In a major embarrassment for both central and State Governments, PM Modi's constituency Varanasi failed to find a place in UP Swachh Ward Contest. The state-level contest was held in Lucknow on December 25 in which the districts were evaluated on various parameters like open defecation free, solid waste management, segregation of waste, condition of public toilets,...

-Financial Express Farm loan waivers—of more than Rs 850 billion in FY18 and FY19, announced by various State Governments—are the flavour of the season. This can affect credit offtake and induce further stress for banks and amount to another agrarian crisis. Farm sector NPAs accounted for 16% of banks’ advances under the priority sector lending in October 2018. Post the early waiver-announcements, credit growth in agriculture and allied activities has been...