-The Indian Express Out of the 11 announcements, three concern governance and administrative reforms, including amendment of the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955, and agriculture marketing reforms through a Central law. New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Friday announced 11 measures for the agriculture sector as part of the third trench of the government’s Rs 20 lakh crore Covid-19 relief package. However, most of these measures are either in place already...
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Food before cash: Because PMJDY cash transfers will exclude many of India’s poorest -Rohini Pande , Simone Schaner & Charity Troyer Moore
-The Indian Express Cash is easy to carry and widely accepted. But, our analysis of nationally representative survey data, described below, suggests that these transfers will exclude many of India’s poorest and, for others, come too late. The vast majority of India’s poor rely on daily wage labour for sustenance. With the current lockdown and its likely extension, millions of daily labourers and their families can no longer earn the money they...
More »It’s about food, nutrition and livelihood security -MS Swaminathan & Nitya Rao
-The Hindu Farmers’ cooperation, technological upgrading and favourable public policies can help India deal with the pandemic The current national lockdown to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the problems of food, nutrition and livelihood security confronting a large number of rural people, in particular, migrants to cities. While some measures have been announced, such as provision of additional rice or wheat, some pulses and oil free of cost, as well as...
More »From Health and Harassment to Income Security and Loans, India's Gig Workers Need Support -Zothan Mawii, Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon
-TheWire.in Nearly two weeks ago, news broke that a Zomato delivery worker tested positive for COVID-19 in New Delhi. As many as 72 families in the south Delhi neighbourhood where he made deliveries have been quarantined, along with 17 other people he worked with. With the luxury of social distancing not extended to delivery workers, the incident further fuelled the apprehensions and uncertainties that they already were contending with. This was only...
More »Covid-19 crisis calls for universal delivery of food and cash transfers by the state -Jayati Ghosh, Prabhat Patnaik and Harsh Mander
-The Indian Express In these dire circumstances, it is essential for the state to directly provide the basic means of survival to anyone who needs it. This must be in both cash and kind. The immediate need for universal food and cash delivery is by now obvious and urgent. Across the country, there are reports of people — migrant workers, local workers, peasants, pastoralists, fisherpeople, vendors, ragpickers, and the destitute — facing...
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