-Down to Earth Exceptional growth in agriculture and acreage in kharif season precipitate a crisis like never before for farmers   In recent times, agriculture made headlines for all the wrong reasons: Farmers quitting cultivation; the sector turning into a perennial loss-making enterprise; and the country’s official policy to downsize the dependence on agriculture to reduce overall economic hardship among the poorest of the population. Agriculture’s fast-declining economic importance reached such an extent...

-The Indian Express The current situation stands in stark contrast to the one in 1991, when India had to pledge its gold reserves to stave off a major financial crisis. In March 1991, India had forex reserves of a mere $5.8 billion; today, the country can depend on its soaring foreign exchange reserves to tackle any crisis on the economic front. India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves surged by $3.883 billion to touch...

-The Indian Express At nearly a quarter of the suicides, or 32,563 of the total 1,39,123, the daily-wage earners comprised the largest chunk of such deaths recorded by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) last year The share of daily-wage earners among those who died by suicide has been steadily rising, doubling to 23.4 per cent in 2019 as compared to six years before. At nearly a quarter of the suicides, or 32,563...

-The Hindu The historic Fundamental Rights case prevented the nation from slipping into a totalitarian regime Kesavananda Bharati Swamiji, the sole unwitting petitioner in the historic Fundamental Rights case which prevented the nation from slipping into a totalitarian regime, died on Sunday. He was 80. Though the judgment is a landmark, the Swamiji did not win any relief in the case. The amendments in the Kerala land reforms law which he had challenged...

-The Hindu Business Line The government, market and collectives should have worked in tandem to develop resilience of economic institutions during the slowdown in India The sharp downfall in the economic growth rate could be attributable to a lack of resilience of Indian economy. Only fiscal and monetary policies may not halt the downfall of the economy. Collective organisations, including NGOs, have played an important role in consumption and income-smoothing. The downfall...