-Newsclick.in The roots of the present economic slowdown squarely lie within the neoliberal trajectory, which has led to a crisis of overproduction. Demonetisation and ‘hasty’ GST only aggravated it. With former prime minister Manmohan Singh resurfacing on the political landscape and articulating once more the orthodox neoliberal position, one can now clearly discern three distinct perspectives on the current economic slowdown. The first is the orthodox neoliberal position that Singh has now articulated....

  A recent press release by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) shows that the declared minimum support price (MSP) for most kharif crops to be marketed in 2019-20 is at least 50 percent above the cost of production. The official information related to the newly declared MSP, which came two days ahead of the Union Budget presentation, gives the impression that the newly re-elected NDA government has kept its promise...

-The Indian Express While procurement has become popular among farmers, insufficient collection is forcing the government to shell out hundreds of crores every year for rice imports while they have got all the rice right at home. Tripura’s BJP-led state government is procuring 10,000 MT paddy from farmers at Minimum Support Price (MSP) starting Monday, even as the Centre’s Food Corporation of India (FCI), which procured paddy for the first time...

-The Hindu Business Line Output next season may see a steep fall Pune: The sugarcane cultivation in Maharashtra is likely to decline due to drought in 26 districts in the state. The State government is collecting the data of cane cultivation and according to sources the decline in cane cultivation will have a drastic impact on sugar production. Primary estimates show that production in the next season might be reduced to just...

-The Indian Express While Uttar Pradesh’s sugar belt has post-Independence shifted to the western and central districts, sugar cane still retains political relevance in the four northeastern constituencies that vote in the last phase of polls on May 19. Kushinagar: It is past mid-May, but the sugar mills at Hata, Ramkola, Kaptanganj, Khadda and Siswa Bazar — the first four in Kushinagar and the last in Maharajganj constituency — are still...