-Down to Earth As farmers' protests demanding loan waiver pick up across the country, there are other people who owe them huge amount of money: the insurance companies A year after the Union government launched the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and Restructured Weather-based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) in April 2016 to enable farmers tide over chronic crop losses due to various calamities, it clearly emerges that the insurance companies,...
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What the Data Tells Us About 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' -Anamitra Roychowdhury
-TheWire.in The Modi government has struggled to achieve success on crucial development fronts such as farmer incomes and job creation. Public memory in India is amnesic. Still, it is difficult to forget that Narendra Modi rode to power in 2014 on the plank of promoting development, aptly captured by ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’. This is not a novel idea in itself as others too have tried to win over voters adopting similar...
More »The Centre Has Abdicated Its Responsibility to Farmers Through Its Pricing Policies -Kavitha Kuruganti
-TheWire.in The insurance coverage in 2015 was 22.3%, with a government expenditure of Rs 2,955 crore. But by spending 4.5x since, how does the government admit to a coverage of only 23%? Farmer suicides and agrarian distress have likely never been among the national public debates as they are right now. A group of Tamil Nadu farmers, whose protests in New Delhi were dubbed ‘bizarre’ but who were actually desperate for debate and...
More »Fasal Bima Yojana needs fine-tuning -Rajalakshmi Nirmal
-The Hindu Business Line Short tenure of the policy is its biggest drawback. With El Nino expected to mar the monsoon this year, insurers may stay away A normal monsoon in 2016, after two years of drought, has not only led to a bountiful harvest for farmers, but also filled the coffers of private insurers. The Kharif 2016 season resulting in lower claims has helped private insurers in particular rake in good profits...
More »Why Are Banks Deducting Money From Farmers' Accounts Without Permission? -Nitika Kakkar and Deepak Vaishnav
-TheWire.in Banks are deducting ‘Crop Insurance premiums’ from farmers’ current accounts without their knowledge. In the Bhivani district of Haryana, a 49-year-old farmer, Bansi Lal, complained that Rs 2,480 was deducted from an account that was linked to his Kissan Credit Card (KCC), without his knowledge. Upon enquiry, the bank informed him that the money was deducted under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY). But when he told the bank that...
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