-Outlook Corporate karza maafi reaches new heights, social spending new lows This year's budget write-off in customs duty on gold, diamonds and jewellery (all aam aadmi items, of course) is Rs 75,592 crore. That's well over twice the "record" amount allocated to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. As Prof Jayati Ghosh points out, the MNREGA has given billions of person-days of work to tens of millions of poor...

-The Indian Express There seems to be emerging a fair consensus across the political spectrum that it is not prudent to tamper with the ongoing process of land market reform that began a decade ago. The earlier "revenue laws" that governed the registration of titles came from a century-old colonial legislation. The imperial government of India kept almost complete control over land title and use - in order to dispense...

-Down to Earth Rajasthan's livestock is facing a threat as grazing lands disappear and laws paralyse traditional economic incentives for keepers Livestock has sustained the people of Rajasthan during times of drought or when agriculture was unviable. State government data suggests 80 per cent of rural families in Rajasthan keep livestock in their households, and 35 per cent of the total income of small and marginal farmers comes from dairy and animal...

-The Indian Express The Bharat Krishak Samaj (BSK) has long urged the merger of the agriculture ministry with the water resources and rural development ministries, in the interests of better coordination. With cooperative federalism gaining currency as an idea, that might just become possible. Now, the panchayati raj and food processing ministries could join the club, leaving agriculture, for all practical purposes, to the states, as envisaged by the Constitution. But...

-PTI Chandigarh: Punjab's farming sector has expressed disappointment over the Union Budget for not taking "pro-farmers" decision to provide much-needed fillip to the state's agriculture which has been suffering with "high" input cost and "lower" output prices. Even the farm experts have also expressed displeasure with the budget for not announcing any financial assistance to Punjab to promote crop diversification as state's wheat-paddy production has reached saturation point, besides taking a toll...