-The Hindu Business Line Mumbai: Astride soyabean sacks, 33-year-old market intermediary Parmeshwar Suryavanshi is literally at the top of his game.   Suryavanshi belongs to the set of middlemen, locally called Adityas, at the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC)-controlled marketyard at Latur in Maharashtra. Below MSP prices When he raises his voice to call out bids, he also raises prices of soyabean though not quite enough to reach the minimum support price (MSP) of ?3,050/quintal....

-The Times of India blog (Voices) Riding on the roads of rural Punjab, a grim spectre unfolds. It is early November and there is fire and smoke all around for the endless land that stretches ahead. It is paddy stubble burning time in the state. This phenomenon is not exceptional to the state of Punjab in India but is also prevalent in Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Recently, there has been much...

-The Hindu Business Line Market rates have fallen below MSP levels due to demonetisation hangover, poor offtake Bengaluru: The Narendra Modi government is finding it hard to live up to its promise of doubling farm incomes by 2022 given the challenge it faces in addressing the unremunerative prices of farm produce. The kharif harvest began a little over a month ago, and already the prices of a majority of the crops have slipped...

-Tehelka.com Learning from the recent starvation deaths in Jharkhand, the nation’s leaders must pay heed to the necessity of ensuring food security for all Food and hunger have been important issues this past month and the news has not been welcome. First it was India’s dismal rank in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2017 released by the International Policy Research Institute rankings — 100th among 119 countries. GHI looks at undernourishment, child...

-The Hindu Business Line Public procurement at a negotiated price is a better option. Price curbs deter producers and don’t check pharmacy margins The Government’s attempt to keep the prices of essential medicines affordable and curb the extraordinary returns earned by private healthcare providers through Price Controls has started an inexorable process whose end does not seem in sight. Will these moves eventually be counter-productive? First came the move to extend the scope...