-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...

-Scroll.in We must remember that there is no one such thing as ‘Indian agriculture’ whenever we discuss reforms. Multiple models need to be discussed. On Monday, Parliament cleared a bill to repeal the three farm laws that had gripped Indian politics for much of the past year. Passed in September 2020, the laws were meant to allow much greater play of corporate capital in Indian agriculture. However, the laws also sparked fears...

-Hindustan Times Democracy is all about elected governments bowing down to people’s wishes and in that sense the decision taken by PM Modi is praiseworthy, writes VS Pandey. Prime Minister Modi, in his address to the nation, announced the withdrawal of the three contentious farm laws and apologised to all those who had suffered because of the same. Farmers, basically from the states of Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh have been...

-PTI/ TheWire.in The National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation on Construction Labour has called the blanket ban on construction 'irrational', adding that the ban ought to be limited to demolition and excavation. New Delhi: A construction workers’ body has moved the Supreme Court seeking ex-gratia relief schemes for daily workers who will suffer the loss of income due to the sudden complete ban on the sector’s activities imposed by NCR states to...

The increase in the total number of suicides committed in India during 2020 in comparison to the previous years has hit the headlines recently. While some media commentators have stated that the economic distress (caused by job loss, income loss, failure of business, and growing hunger, among other things) in 2020 could have led to more suicides being committed, others have said that home isolation and deteriorating mental health (associated...