-The Indian Express Whichever party wins the election, the real long-term challenge is to stem the rot of institutional foundations. The headlines say that the ruling party manifesto emphasises nationalism (“nation first”), and, on the economic front, it will aspire to make India the third-largest economy in the world by the end of the next decade, to make it reach the list of top 50 countries in the ranking of Ease...
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Looming water scarcity
-The Hindu Business Line Drought conditions in peninsular India highlight familiar policy failures Recent BusinessLine reports have highlighted the harrowing conditions of water scarcity in peninsular India, with the monsoon still about three months away. Scientists and specialists have observed that 40 per cent of the country’s area is reeling under drought, of which 16-17 per cent is severe. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and Gujarat are in a...
More »Under NDA, rural drinking water takes a back seat -Sneha Alexander & Vishnu Padmanabhan
-Livemint.com Since 2014, the NDA has cut funding for rural drinking water and focused more on sanitation, leaving millions without access to safe and assured water Water is central to human sustenance but millions of Indians do not get enough of it. In 2015, 163 million Indians lacked access to clean water near their homes, the highest figure in the world according to WaterAid, a non-governmental organization focusing on global water issues....
More »Farm income support, a silver bullet? -Radheshyam Jadhav, Vishwanath Kulkarni, Rutam Vora, V Sajeev Kumar, KV Kurmanath, TV Jayan and A Srinivas
-The Hindu Business Line After failed efforts to placate angry farmers, the Centre and various States have launched income-support schemes. BusinessLine reports Let’s rewind to mid-2017, when onion farmers in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, took to the streets. The protests spread like wildfire to Madhya Pradesh. In northern Karnataka, pulses growers were up in arms against crashing prices. Minimum support prices were not holding up. Flustered governments began to trot out loan waivers as...
More »MS Swaminathan, father of Green Revolution, interviewed by Vishwanath Kulkarni (The Hindu Business Line)
-The Hindu Business Line Eminent agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan, Chairman of the much discussed Farmers’ Commission whose report mooted an MSP at 50 per cent above cost, feels that income support can be given in the form of free inputs or higher procurement as well. While welcoming ‘PM-Kisan’, he says cash transfer should not become a form of patronage and that the focus should shift from loan write-offs to long-term policies....
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