In its 2014 election manifesto, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), among other things, promised to "take steps to enhance the profitability in agriculture, by ensuring a minimum of 50% profits over the cost of production". In his 2018-19 Union budget speech too, the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley informed the Parliament that the 2014 election manifesto of the BJP had stated that the farmers should get at least 1.5 times the...
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Slackening of demand indicators weakens India's growth impetus -Aanchal Magazine
-The Indian Express Farmers getting lower prices for their produce, much lower than the minimum support prices announced by the government for the kharif crops this year, has hit the rural consumption demand story. New Delhi: The consumption-driven story of India’s economic growth is expected to face a slowdown as wide concerns emerge about the weakening rural demand. At a time when public expenditure is likely to be curtailed by the obligation...
More »Forgotten again: 3 kids starve to death, fury gives way to apathy -Somreet Bhattacharya
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A one-room house near Pandit Chowk in Mandawali has been locked ever since three children—Mansi (8), Sikha (4) and Parul (2)—starved to death here. The tragedy that shook this locality in July is still discussed, but the tide of strong emotions has now ebbed. “Nothing has changed. No new anganwadi centre has come up, nor did anyone ask about the condition of other kids living here....
More »An outstanding alternative to farm loan waiver -Suman Layak
-The Economic Times The world is no stranger to farm debt crises like the one India is seeing today. Back in the 1980s, the Canadian parliament enacted a law to stop foreclosures on farm debt, after prices collapsed and interest rates jumped to as high as 24%. The law was in force for a dozen-odd years. It identified insolvent farmers, facilitated agreements between the borrowers and lenders, and helped some farmers move...
More »In election year, farmer on centrestage -Harish Damodaran and Parthasarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express The new year could witness the first national elections being fought on farmers’ issues. And it could test both the ruling BJP pushed to the defensive, particularly in the larger sugar-producing states, and the Congress under pressure to deliver loan waivers If 2017 saw the beginnings of agrarian unrest in large swathes of the country, 2018 brought it centrestage as the numero uno political issue. And almost everyone’s...
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