-Business Standard The MSP is declared for 23 crops. This means that farmers of other crops or those trying to diversify under contract farming would not have the MSP protection of the Bills Much was made of the Punjab government’s plan to reject the three central laws on agri markets and provide its own protection to famers, especially on prices for their produce. But, the two Bills presented in the state legislature...

-The Indian Express While much of the world is seeing benign inflation trends, India is a clear exception. Among the drivers of headline inflation in India in recent months has been food prices, especially those of Vegetables. With economic activity picking pace after the easing of lockdown measures, the recovery has thrown up some paradoxes: revival in employment amid a fall in labour force participation, surging inflation rate despite disinflationary impact from...

-Newsclick.in In 2006, chief minister Nitish Kumar scrapped the APMC Act in Bihar and the destructive effects can be seen in the seething anger amongst farmers. What the Narendra Modi government recently did through passing laws to deregulate agricultural trade, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had accomplished 14 years ago, in 2006. Soon after becoming chief minister in alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he scrapped Bihar’s Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC)...

-The Hindu Paper uses latest available food price and wage information from the National Sample Survey’s 2011 dataset. Three out of four rural Indians cannot afford a nutritious diet, according to a paper recently published in journal Food Policy. Even if they spent their entire income on food, almost two out of three of them would not have the money to pay for the cheapest possible diet that meets the requirements set...

-Newsclick.in Devastated by the pandemic and lockdown, people are now facing a back-breaking inflation, especially in everyday food items like Vegetables. In just the past month, inflation (annual price rise) has zoomed up, delivering a body blow to family budgets. Recently released government data shows that retail inflation rate hit an eight-month high of 7.34%, up from 6.69% in August. This is general inflation, including all items of consumption. For food items, the...