-Down to Earth Eligibility threshold for FPOs should be reduced or support provided to meet the criteria, experts feel Farmer producer organisations (FPO) figure prominently in government policies and the ambitious plan to double farmers’ income by 2022. But funds remain elusive for these bodies, according to a recent analysis.  Just 1-5 per cent of FPOs have received funding under central government schemes introduced to promote them in the last seven years, the...

-The Hindu Business Line This is on the back of swift rise in prices of raw materials and global natural gas India is likely to witness an unprecedented jump in the Central government’s fertiliser subsidy on the back of swift rise in prices of raw materials and global natural gas. According to ratings agency Crisil, the government’s fertiliser subsidy bill is likely to be higher by ₹50,000 crore to touch the total...

-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha Secretariat dated 2nd June, 2021 In a letter dated 2nd June, 2021, written to Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister, Rural Development, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha -- a civil society group working on labour rights -- has opposed the recent move by the Ministry of Rural Development that changes the system of NREGA wage payments in such a manner that separate labour budgets and payment orders are...

-The Hindu Mamata Banerjee’s assumption that Bengali nationalism could block anti-incumbency and Hindutva may be optimistic The Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal is a unique specimen in understanding anti-incumbency. Welfare schemes that usually make incumbents popular have added to the anti-incumbency woes of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as the workers of her party made those the easy and only option for rent-seeking. ‘Cut money’, or the cut for TMC local...

-The Indian Express Launched in June to help vendors amid the pandemic, the PM SVANidhi scheme is a micro-credit facility that provides street vendors a collateral-free loan of Rs 10,000 at concessional rates of an estimated 7.25%. After being nudged by municipalities to step up loan Disbursements under the PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) programme, banks are writing back to report that many of these collateral-free loans are turning into...