-The Indian Express Únion Budget 2018: Budget addresses the crises in agriculture. The devil is in the allocations All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. In Anna Karenina, only if a person is satisfied on all counts will she be happy. The allocations in the budget cover every sector, with umpteen implications, and no person’s expectations can be fulfilled on all counts. While every...

According to the document entitled Green Paper on Farmers, Farming & Rural Economy 2018: 4 Years - 4 Budgets: What Has This Central Government Delivered?, which has been prepared by Jai Kishan Andolan, Swaraj India, ASHA and Rythu Swarajya Vedika (published on 30 January, 2018): Far from giving farmers and farming ‘the highest priority’ during a period when they most needed the governmental support, the present NDA government has tried to...

-The Tribune The farmer is crying for structural change to make the agriculture sector vibrant so that it serves as a pivot for revival of the rural economy, thereby creating employment opportunities for the youth, says Devinder Sharma After two consecutive years of back-to-back bumper harvest in 2016 and 2017, prices for almost all the crops had crashed forcing the farmers to dump their produce onto the streets at many a places....

-Livemint.com Farmers need structural reforms, crop diversification and greater public investment rather than subsidies and price support Indian agriculture has been relatively untouched by the structural reforms that lifted incomes in other parts of the economy. Low farm productivity meant that governments tried to improve the lot of farmers through price policy. The problem is that engineering a shift in the terms of trade through higher support prices usually leads to generalized...

-The Telegraph The Left in Bengal had often criticised him whenever he red-flagged excessive local tyranny, and spoke about the industrial decline in Bengal. The incumbent ruling party may make tall claims about changes in Bengal since the Trinamul government came to power but he has been candid enough to suggest that he hasn't seen much change either in industrial expansion or in investment in infrastructure. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has...