-The Hindu The gender gap in the agriculture sector will only widen more with the current farm laws Eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan once said, “Some historians believe that it was women who first domesticated crop plants and thereby initiated the art and science of farming. While men went out hunting in search of food, women started gathering seeds from the native flora and began cultivating those of interest from the point...

-Livemint.com * The spike in auto-debit failures suggest that the pain may have only just begun for India’s small borrowers * With mandatory EMI repayments kicking in since September, many feel the available recast options and a waiver of compound interest are not sufficient. India may be staring at a loan crisis MUMBAI: For someone who had never defaulted on any loans before March this year, Monica Keerthi Karri gets quite harried at...

-The Hindu Scheme will be implemented even for borrowers who did not avail moratorium. Three weeks after informing the Supreme Court that the Centre would bear the additional compound interest on loans of up to ₹2 crore availed by retail borrowers as well as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the government formally communicated the modalities of the scheme to lenders on Friday. Banks and other lenders, including co-operative banks and non-banking finance...

-The Economic Times The group is also in favour of revising the sub-target for small and marginal farmers to 10% from the existing 8% of adjusted net bank credit with a roadmap of two years. KOLKATA: A Reserve Bank of India working group on agricultural credit has questioned the efficacy of populist measures such as debt waiver and interest subsidy on crop loans, while suggesting a slew of structural changes to boost...

In the financial year 2017-18 when tractor sales touched new heights, it was said by many of the NDA (viz. National Democratic Alliance) government supporters that rural demand has revived on account of adequate monsoon rainfall and higher minimum support prices for crops. Many economists and newspaper columnists also denied the existence of any rural distress. An alternative perspective, however, was also presented by rural economists like Dr. Himanshu who teaches...