-The Hindu Several TRADE UNIONs, feminists and research groups and policy advocates have come together on International Women’s Day to campaign for the rights of anganwadi workers, helpers and ASHAs with Members of Parliament and to highlight their plight during the pandemic. The Frontline Workers’ Solidarity Campaign will be addressing several MPs as Parliament reconvenes for the second part of the Budget Session on Monday. The drive is being spearheaded by Feminist...

-The Hindu To show Indian agriculture as being net taxed to argue for the farm laws has poor conceptual validity Over the past three decades, a major rationale offered in favour of liberalising Indian agriculture was that farmers were “net taxed”. In other words, incomes of farmers were kept artificially lower than what they should have been. It was argued that this “net taxation” existed because protectionist policies deprived farmers of higher...

-The Indian Express Surat police filed four cases against 93 people, including leaders of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti and the Congress, after they took out a Tiranga Yatra on tractors and two-wheelers to support the farmers’ protest, and to demand withdrawal of criminal cases against Patidar leaders. Marches were carried out in several parts of the country by farmers and TRADE UNIONs to express solidarity with the tractor rally in Delhi,...

-The Indian Express Apart from repeal of farm laws, farmers are demanding guaranteed minimum support prices, which have no legal backing. A look at what the implications would be if the govt did provide the guarantee Farmer unions protesting on Delhi’s borders are raising two fundamental demands. The first is for repealing the three agricultural reform laws enacted by the Centre. The second is to provide legal guarantee for the minimum support...

-The Indian Express The Union budget should focus on enhancing credit flows to the small and marginal farmers, increase investment in health and education. The first advance estimates of GDP for 2020-21 are much better than the earlier market consensus and shows the inherent strengths of the Indian economy. The economy is expected to contract by 7.7 per cent implying a COVID-19 induced loss of Rs 9.61 lakh crore in real terms...