-Press release by Working Peoples Charter (WPC) Network dated 23rd March, 2021 A statement on the condition of India’s migrant workforce one year after the COVID-19 lockdowns 24 March marks the anniversary of India’s harsh nationwide COVID-19 lockdown when we witnessed an unparalleled impact on the country’s poor, particularly internal migrants who comprise a 140 million-strong workforce. In 2020, India saw the largest urban-rural exodus in its history, with millions of workers...

-The Indian Express In a letter to the Delhi Food Commissioner, the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has also said that changing the provisions of the Act so as to allow delivery of foodgrains to the doorstep of beneficiaries, would need the approval of Parliament. New Delhi: Six days before the proposed rollout of a Delhi government scheme to deliver rations to people’s homes, the Centre has raised...

Quite often it is argued by mainstream economists that a sizeable chunk of the Union Budget every year is wasted because the Government spends that on food and fertiliser subsidies. The burgeoning size of these two subsidies relative to the entire budget as well as the gross domestic product (GDP) is often used to build the argument that economic as well as environmental sustainability of the country is at stake...

-Livemint.com * In 2006, Bihar abolished state-run mandis. What followed is a forewarning for India’s new farm laws * The system is rigged in favour of the traders who cheat on every possible parameter—from weight to moisture level—which is why very few farmers come to Bihar’s mandis to sell produce ARARIA/ PURNEA: Biren Bahardar thinks he is too small to raise his voice. Local traders can fleece at will while purchasing his harvest....

-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...