-Livemint.com A partial hike in the MSP on paper was packaged by the govt as three fresh and historic steps for farmers’ welfare Minimum support price (MSP) is a fiction. It is a feel-good fiction. The farmers are free to sell their crop for as much as they wish, but should the prices fall below a minimum level, the government is there to help them. MSP is a sovereign guarantee that the state...
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The wait for deep agricultural reforms -Siraj Hussain
-Livemint.com While there are several creditable achievements, it is the deeper structural reforms where expectations from a strong government have not been met Amidst expectations of a magical transformation of the Indian economy, the Narendra Modi government took over the reins in May 2014. During the election campaign, people were led to believe that the Gujarat model of agricultural development, which delivered 8% growth in agriculture during fiscal years 2003-14, would be...
More »From plate to plough: An unfulfilled farm manifesto -Ashok Gulati & Siraj Hussain
-The Indian Express On agriculture, three years into the Modi government, while many steps have been taken to realise promises made in 2014, others have fallen by the wayside With the Modi government completing three years in office, it is time to assess its performance in various sectors. We focus here on agriculture. Without robust growth in agriculture, “sabka saath, sabka vikas” will remain an empty slogan. There are two ways to evaluate...
More »Policy disaster -Reetika Khera
-Frontline.in The PDS, the ICDS and the MDM schemes constitute lifelines for a vast majority of the population. Maternity entitlements need to be seen both as a right for women and as instruments in the battle against undernutrition. A government that ignores or undermines them does so at its own peril. THE GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX 2016 puts India at 97 out of 118 countries. The release of these numbers is great...
More »Missing stock is harming our food security
-Livemint.com Spoilage and pilferage are not something the country can afford given its low ranking in the hunger index The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently approved a proposal to restructure around Rs30,000 crore of food credit given to Punjab state agencies, allowing for the conversion of cash credit into a 20-year loan at a lower interest rate. The central bank also sanctioned a cash credit limit of Rs26,000 crore for this...
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