-The Hindu Business Line To target farmer customers in the hinterland looking for adoption of farm mechanisation State Bank of India (SBI) has signed a master agreement with Adani Capital for co-lending to farmers for purchase of tractor and farm implements, to increase efficiency in farm operations and productivity of crops. Adani Capital is the non-banking finance company (NBFC) arm of Adani Group. Please click here to read more.  ...

-The Hindu Business Line Farmers say the schemes do not reach them and cost of farming is only rising The government of India facilitates State governments to reduce agricultural costs through many Centrally-sponsored and Central-sector schemes. However, the latest data available for six major schemes for the last five years show that the actual expenditure on these schemes has remained low compared to Budget estimates. Farmers have been complaining that the schemes are...

-The Hindu Public choice refers to an economic approach towards the study of politics. American Nobel laureate James Buchanan, a prominent member of the Virginia school of political economy, characterised the public choice approach to politics as the study of “politics without romance.” Public choice theorists assume that politicians and bureaucrats who run the government of a country are self-interested individuals who primarily look after their own selfish interests. This is in...

-The Hindu Business Line This will reduce disparity between States in procurement The announcement of abrogation of farm laws can only be the initial success of farmers’ collective actions. Most of the farmers are out of the ambit of these laws. The Shanta Kumar Committee report in 2015 estimated that only 6 per cent of the farmers could sell their produce through government agencies. Furthermore, the procurement is extremely unequal across States. During...

-Hindustan Times The headline unemployment rate in the March 2021 quarter was 9.4%. This is the lowest since the quarter ending June 2020, which coincided with the 68-day long nation-wide lockdown which was imposed on March 25, 2020. Could the Covid-19 pandemic have left long-term scars on India’s labour markets? The findings of the January-March round of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), released on November 30, by the National Statistical Office...