-Livemint.com Unlike the dhoti-clad, topi-wearing quintessential ‘kisan’, the new Indian farmer is vocal and tech-savvy New Delhi: In the winter of 1988 when the feisty farmer leader from Uttar Pradesh, Mahendra Singh Tikait, laid siege to Delhi with thousands of cultivators and their cattle literally creating a mess of the boat club lawns, agriculture’s share in India’s gross domestic product (GDP) was about 30%. About three decades later, the farm sector’s share in...

-Livemint.com There is a growing risk that inflation may spike in the coming months The sharp drop in prices of farm products over the past few months has not just upset farmers across the country, but also seems to have complicated the task of India’s monetary authorities. The minutes of the last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) show that the committee is divided...

-The Hindu Business Line Recent macro data hint at delayed second-order impacts from note ban Did the Indian economy suffer only temporary hiccups from the abrupt withdrawal of high-value currency notes in November 2016? Until recently, the Government and quite a few commentators were convinced that it did. Macro-economic data releases such as the first advance GDP estimates (which retained real gross value added, or GVA, growth at 7 per cent for...

-Down to Earth Prices of some vegetables plummeted by 60 per cent between July 2016 and April 2017, further aggravating agrarian crisis Three years after Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power, India witnesses unprecedented level of low food inflation. States like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have been witnessing farmers’ unrest for quite some time now. Six farmers were killed in police firing in a protest rally held in Mandsaur district...

-The Indian Express A smooth GST regime can break inter-state barriers on movement and facilitate direct linkages between processors and farmers After more than a decade of intense discussion and debate, the GST is finally becoming a reality. Although in its current form, it is not as perfect as was originally envisaged, yet it is being lauded as one of the most transformational reforms since 1991. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was humble...