-TheWire.in The government has failed to provide compensation and relief to farmers for the losses suffered during the lockdown, primarily because it lacks the fiscal space. New Delhi: On Friday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman held her third press conference in as many days to follow up on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of a Rs 20 lakh crore financial stimulus package. After focussing on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and migrant...
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Most small farmers outside formal credit system. Sitharaman’s announcements won’t help them -Shoumitro Chatterjee and Mekhala Krishnamurthy
-ThePrint.in An RBI report says that despite numerous existing initiatives, at most 40 per cent of India’s small and marginal farmers are covered by formal credit. There is no doubt that agricultural credit is a critical element of both agricultural production and marketing across India. However, during a period of acute crisis, the government needs to bank on channels that are relatively robust and far-reaching. Unfortunately, especially when it comes to small...
More »Demand first, please, and then loans -Devadeep Purohit
-The Telegraph 'Wish there were announcements on government spending' Kolkata: Like many Indians, a young businessman keenly awaiting the fine print of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ATManirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (Self-reliant India Mission) placed himself before a television screen around 4pm on Wednesday. The businessman did not have to brush up his language skills to understand finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman but he came away with a sense of déjà vu. “I heard that I will...
More »Getting cash transfers out of a JAM -Jean Drèze and Reetika Khera
-The Hindu For effective cash relief in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the government must think beyond the Jan Dhan Yojana For some years now, the so-called JAM trinity (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) has been propounded as a dream cash-transfer infrastructure for India. The term “trinity” itself gives a sense of the faith and fervour this project sought to inspire (why not “trio”?). It was born in chapter 3 of the Economic Survey 2015,...
More »Modi government is misusing the ‘fake news’ tag to try to evade media scrutiny -Shoaib Daniyal
-Scroll.in During the coronavirus pandemic, India needs a free press more than ever. These intimidation tactics do not help. Publishing news based on information from credible, unidentified sources is a global journalistic practice. This allows critical facts to surface even if sourcexsce afraid of repercussions. In India, though, the government is creating an ATMosphere in which journalists will be afraid of publishing such material. On Sunday, the Delhi Police summoned an Indian Express...
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