-The Indian Express Third tranche of COVID-19 economic package: Not only can farmers sell to anyone and anywhere, but traders and processors, too, will be able to freely buy, stock and move any quantity of agri-produce within the country. Barely seven months after imposing limits on the maximum quantity of onion any wholesaler or retailer could keep, the Narendra Modi government on Friday announced what may turn out to be a defining...
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A potential seedbed for private profits -R Ramakumar
-The Hindu The new Seeds Bill is tilted against farmers’ interests and loaded in favour of seed companies. After passing through at least two versions, Seeds Bill 2019 is now under Parliament’s consideration. The earlier versions of the Bill, in 2004 and 2010, had generated heated debates. The present version promises to be no different. In 1994, India signed the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In 2002, India also...
More »RCEP's threat to agriculture staved off, but that does not solve the sector's problems -Siraj Hussain
-TheWire.in In the last five years, India’s exports of agricultural commodities have gone down from $43.25 billion in FY 2014 to $39.20 billion in FY’2019. The run-up to the RCEP leader summit in Bangkok last week was truly amazing. While farmers and trade union activists from both the Left and Right were opposed to India signing the RCEP, the government seemed to be in two minds. Indeed, senior ministers were reluctant...
More »Fingers burnt in FTAs, India now stays out of RCEP -Puja Mehra
-Livemint.com * RCEP negotiations started in 2013 but acquired fresh impetus after the rise of protectionism globally that saw the US pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership * India has seen its trade deficit with most countries rising manifold after an FTA was operationalized India on Monday decided against joining The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a trade pact that has been spearheaded by China with the 10-nation Asean and four others. Mint...
More »Civil society group welcomes failure to sign RCEP; calls it 'bad deal for democracy' -Joe C Mathew
-Business Today RCEP trade deal: The group said that the Indian govt should not agree to the RCEP even in future as it will be a 'bad deal for democracy, for farmers, workers, will subvert our sovereign laws and compromise India's industrialisation potential'. Forum for Trade Justice, a pan-civil society network has welcomed the failure of the 16 negotiating countries to reach a consensus over the conclusion of the world's largest free...
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