-TheWire.in At a time when the Rabi crop is ready for harvest and the Kharif crop will be sown, quick and effective policy responses are required. Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, India has announced a nationwide 21-day lockdown, shutting down all businesses except essential services. The government has assured that the supply of food items and other necessities won’t be hindered during this period. While social distancing has been adopted as a measure...

-The Hindu Seeing economists as ‘plumbers’, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo show how economic reasoning and evidence can shed light on real-world issues John Maynard Keynes, the founder of Keynesian economics, once said that “if economists could manage to get themselves thought of as a humble, competent people, on a level with dentists, that would be splendid”. Judging from recent opinion polls, economists still have a long way to go. According to...

-Mongabay.com * India’s ongoing lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus is threatening the agriculture sector as it overlaps with the time of harvest. * The lockdown has derailed harvest preparation and lack of agricultural labour to help in harvest and restrictions on transportation of produce despite being given waivers as essential services. * Farmer leaders and agriculture experts criticised the relief package announced by the government to aid farmers impacted by the...

-The Indian Express Till April 1, 8.53 lakh cases of COVID-19 had been reported world-wide, with 41,887 deaths. China has seen 82,295 cases and 3,310 deaths. An average coronavirus patient may be in hospital for about 25 days and the mean duration from the onset of symptoms to death is about 18 days, a study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases has said. The study also concluded that the overall infection fatality rate...

-The Hindu Business Line Farmers may soon be able to sell their harvested produce at farmgate, with the government adding new features on the electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM) that bypasses the need for taking the produce to wholesale mandis. Agriculture Ministry on Thursday updated eNAM platform by adding two new software modules that would recognise trade from recognised warehouses using electronic negotiable warehouse receipts (eNWRs) and allow farmer producer organisations to...