-TheWire.in The opposition has accused the state government of hastily implementing the KALIA scheme with an eye on elections. New Delhi: The Odisha government has found that it provided the benefit of its Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme to 3.41 lakh ineligible beneficiaries, The Hindu reported on Wednesday. This has led to the state exchequer spending Rs 170 crore more than it needed to on the scheme. Prior to...

-The Times of India BATHINDA: The Punjab agriculture and farmers welfare department had banned glyphosate herbicide in October 2018, but the chemical is still being sold by an e-commerce company. Taking note of that, Punjab State Farmers and Farm Labourers Commission chairman Ajay Vir Jakhar has tweeted to ask the e-commerce giant Amazon to stop selling glyphosate herbicide in Punjab. Jakhar tweeted: "Punjab banned sale and use of glyphosate. You sell and...

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...

-Odisha Economy Discussion Series-2, April 2019, Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies, Bhubaneswar Purpose – The recently launched KALIA scheme of the Government of Odisha is a massive direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme aimed at improving the condition of around three million farm households along with that of landless cultivators, sharecroppers, agricultural labourers, and vulnerable households. However, evaluations of the impacts of the scheme are likely to face difficulties in the...

-Business Standard/ India Spend For the first time since Independence, India saw a shift of surplus labour from agriculture to the non-agricultural sectors Although income mobility improved country-wide in the seven years to 2012, the progress was unequal between states, while the likelihood of children pursuing the same occupation as their fathers declined for those employed in the low productivity agricultural sector, noted a January 2019 study on economic mobility. Farmers’ children were...