-The Indian Express In the initial years, APMC Acts helped remove malpractices and freed the farmers from the exploitative power of middlemen and mercantile capital, writes Ramesh Chand In the context of the ongoing farmer protests in some parts of the country, Ramesh Chand, a member of Niti Aayog, explains the reason why the government had to introduce changes. “The debate on the Farmers’ Produce Trading and Commerce Act 2020 (FPTC Act) has...

-Society for Social and Economic Research The economic reforms which were started in 1991 shifted the focus of fertilizer policies away from playing a leading role in building the fertilizer industry and ensuring the availability of fertilizers at affordable prices to farmers. Under the neo-liberal policy framework, reducing the fiscal burden of fertilizer subsidies and the foreign exchange burden of fertilizer-related imports became the overriding concerns of the state.  Interestingly, the post-liberalisation...

-The Hindu Business Line All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), welcomed the four farm legislations passed by the Punjab Assembly and urged all other States to follow the model so that the Centre’s three farm laws can be nullified. AIKS General Secretary and senior CPI(M) leader Hannan Mollah said the States and the Centre should enact a law promoting “Peasant-Worker Social Cooperatives” against corporatisation of Agriculture. He said the passage of the Bills...

-The Hindu First State to formally reject Centre’s 3 farm legislations Punjab on Tuesday became the first State in the country to formally reject theCentral government’s three Agriculture sector legislations, with its Legislative Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passing three Bills to negate the Union laws. The Assembly passed a resolution rejecting the Central legislations and the proposed Electricity Amendment Bill and demanding their immediate annulment. It also sought an ordinance to protect the...

  Among other things, one of the reasons (given by some economists) behind low labour force participation rate (LFPR) of women vis-à-vis men in the country is that more young girls are educating themselves, causing an improvement in the secondary and tertiary enrolment rates. It means that more Indian women are staying out of the labour force in order to continue their education – secondary education and / or college &...