-RuralIndiaOnline.org The government’s ‘package’ responding to the crisis is a blend of callousness and cluelessness With his first speech on the coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi got us to scare evil spirits away by having people bang the hell out of their pots and pans. With his second, he scared the hell out of all of us. With not a word on how the public, particularly the poor, are to access food and other...
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A Low Growth, No Employment and No Hope Budget for ‘Aspirational India’ -KP Kannan
-Economic and Political Weekly The Union Budget of 2020 is conspicuous by its non-recognition of the ongoing and widely discussed slowdown of the economy, let alone its impact on the different sections of the people. Given the negative growth in employment and consumption in the rural economy, the budget seems like a cruel joke on the plight of the poor, in general, and women, in particular. Instead of measures for boosting...
More »Indian agriculture is under an invisible emergency -Devinder Sharma
-Down to Earth At a time when farmers strive to get the right price for crops, more money in their hands can help reignite the country's economy In 2019, three weeks after the kharif harvesting season began, reports emerged that farmers are selling their produce at a price way below the minimum support price (MSP) announced by the government. Except for a few crops like paddy and maize, market prices for most...
More »Shock in Varanasi as 56 social activists charged with violent rioting -- after a peaceful protest -Shoaib Daniyal
-Scroll.in Their families and friends are now scared of speaking to journalists. Uttar Pradesh police have arrested more than 700 people over the last week for protesting against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act. Most of the arrests have taken place in working-class Muslim neighbourhoods where residents allege the police turned violent, fired bullets without warning and ransacked homes. However, in Varanasi, even social activists among the educated Middle Class have not been spared....
More »Onion crisis reveals how little the Government can do when the chips are down -Siraj Hussain
-TheWire.in Even if we had enough buffer stock, which we don't, the Centre has no delivery mechanism. The only viable alternative is to create modern storage infrastructure, but who is interested in doing that? It appears that it is the humble onion which is finally teaching urban India’s Middle Class of the perils of climate change. The deniers may still not want to believe it, but the current crisis of high onion...
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