-Economic and Political Weekly The state of agricultural markets, the agricultural market policy and regulatory reforms in Punjab are reviewed in the context of the agrarian crisis. The farmer and farm worker manifesto of the Aam Aadmi Party is critically assessed. Policy mechanisms for agro-industrial development of the state are suggested.   There have been various attempts in the past to address the agrarian crisis mostly in the form of relief measures...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union health ministry is set to launch an App linked to an Indian food database to display for consumers the nutritional contents of food, whether street-snacks, restaurant fare, or meals cooked at home. The App will rely on the Indian Food Composition Tables-2017 released today by the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and listing values of various nutrients in 528 foods, including cereals, legumes, fruits and...

-TheWire.in Using tax collection numbers as signifiers of robust economic activity may be highly optimistic. One of the most interesting questions in Indian macroeconomics today is – how are we faring since late 2016? In this article, I seek to analyse data on tax revenues and obtain some clues about the performance of the economy. In a press release published on January 9, the central government reported the following increases in tax collections...

-The Telegraph A distinguished Ugandan social scientist of Indian origin,whom I happened to meet earlier this month at an academic conference, told me that Narendra Modi's demonetization reminded him of the fiat in 1972 of the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, that all Asians should quit Uganda within a period of three months. His analogy, of course, would be considered inapposite for an obvious reason: expelling people from their places of domicile,...

-Vikalp The paddy cropping and harvesting season has been concluded and the Rabi crops (mainly wheat) is seeded into the vast agricultural plains of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. The region is known to be highly dependent upon agriculture for livelihood and food security, but it is also known as one of the economically backward-regions of the country. The persistent negligence by the government to develop a mechanised crop procurement system (through Food...