-The Hindu At Ministerial Conference next month, will push back on ‘severe’ curbs on right to give price subsidies At the upcoming meeting of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) highest decision-making body, India will not agree to severe restrictions on its right to give price subsidies to farmers through the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to procure grains from them for food security purposes, according to highly-placed official sources. The WTO’s Ministerial Conference is...

-The Indian Express Union government must address structural issues in agricultural policy, allow states greater autonomy. Farmers from across the country are out on Delhi’s streets agitating just as the deliberations for the 2018 budget are beginning and it’s time to seek solutions to the structural issues that plague the system. The “one-size-fits-all” policy created for the farm sector is self-destructive in design and programmes meant to double farmer incomes are collapsing. The...

-The Indian Express First-ever comprehensive study pegs produce trade losses in mandis from demonetisation at 7-15%. Demonetisation led to the value of farm produce traded in mandis across India collapse by nearly 15 per cent within a week of the decision, with these losses averaging 7 per cent even at the end of 90 days, according to a just-published Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) working paper. The study, which crunches data...

-The Indian Express Rs 3,000-cr package discussed in September but states wanted Centre to pay, which said no budget Bonn: This season’s stubble-burning in north and north-western India, believed to be largely responsible for the heavy smog over Delhi, could have been avoided if the Centre and the states concerned had agreed on a formula to share the burden of a newly finalised financial incentive package to dissuade farmers from burning their...

-Livemint.com Cash scarcity led to a spike in digital payments post demonetisation, but the trend reversed as remonetisation picked up pace New Delhi: Soon after demonetisation was announced on 8 November last year, it was projected as part of a broader push towards a cashless economy. Several ministers and government officials claimed that this would nudge Indians to rely on non-cash or digital payments. In the weeks and months following demonetisation, digital payments...