-The Financial Express The criteria for fixing MSP of pulses should be sensitive to prevailing market prices The agricultural price policy, which aimed at providing a remunerative and stable price environment to farmers through MSPs and obligatory procurement by government agencies, has helped India overcome massive food shortages to emerge as a net exporter of food. Though the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Agricultural Prices Commission requires that policy-induced incentive should...

-HuffingtonPost Blog   Almost all discussions on agriculture begin and end with concerns about the plight of the farmer, the margins of the intermediary, and the ineffectiveness of government policy to address the real issues of those engaged in agriculture. It is easy to blame the government, whether it's the dispensation at the state, Centre or both. Moreover, both are also perfectly capable of blaming each other, even if they are on...

-Financial Express The countrywide roll-out of the much-touted National Food Security Act (NFSA) seems unlikely even this fiscal, with a clutch of major states including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat seeking more time to finalise and digitise the beneficiary lists and complete end-to-end computerisation of the public distribution system (PDS). The countrywide roll-out of the much-touted National Food Security Act (NFSA) seems unlikely even this fiscal, with a clutch of major...

-The New Indian Express BHUBANESWAR:  Around 3.6 lakh people from scheduled categories and economically weaker sections of the society of 10 districts have been benefited under World Bank-assisted Targeted Rural Initiative for Poverty Termination and Infrastructure (TRIPTI) programme. The project, a poverty reduction programme, aims at enhancing the socio-economic status of the poor, especially women and disadvantaged groups, in 38 blocks of 10 districts. The project launched in November 2009 has mobilised 79,000...

-The Hindu The appointments of Vijai Sharma as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and K.V. Chowdary as Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), which have been a long time coming, also raise some concerns about the Narendra Modi government’s level of engagement with institutions that form the life breath of Indian democracy. The CIC presides over the Right to Information, crucial to a participatory democracy in making institutions accountable, while the CVC is tasked...