-ThePrint.in Researchers associated with Pennsylvania UniverSITy’s India study centre looked at agricultural markets of Bihar, Odisha and Punjab. They found that intermediaries are a rational response to the dominant structure of Indian farming. Most Indian farmers have tiny farms that yield meagre incomes. They face a multiplicity of risks, which jeopardises even these low incomes. These twin pressures are particularly acute in eastern India, manifest in the two states that were the...

-The Telegraph Agriculture has a moral economy that the media lack The farmers strike of 2020 as an event was a collage of multiple narratives. It tempted one to compare it to the story of the seven blind men and the elephant. As reportage, it lacked the solidity of traditional narratives. It was as if every reporter and news broadcaster, every witness, had a different reaction to the events of the week....

-The Tribune Democracy is not about oratorical skills, it requires mindful listening Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as it is said, is an excellent orator. The other day, while laying the foundation stone of the new Parliament building, Mr Modi, with his characteristic style, invoked Guru Nanak, reminding us of the great saint’s message: “Jab tak sansar rahe, tab tak samvad rahe”, and stressed on the need for dialogue to preserve the ‘soul...

-The Telegraph HINTERLAND: Our structural problem — small and marginal rain-fed sustenance farms, over 80 per cent of India’s agriculture sector — remains unaddressed Let’s understand the chronology: before the 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi promised farmers that he would comply with the Swaminathan Commission formula to arrive at a minimum support price for farm produce: a 50 per cent profit over the production cost. Post elections, he reneged on the promise...

-The Hindu Loss of livelihoods has pushed poor families to opt for early marriages The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown have proved to be new drivers of child marriages in rural Madhya Pradesh with several reports of such ceremonies from different parts of the State during the ongoing marriage season. “I am a widow and I don’t have any kind of social security. Marriage is the only safe option for my daughters,” said...