-The Hindu They have not got many of the benefits that the new laws threaten to take away. As the movement against the agricultural reform laws builds towards its one year anniversary, it is clear that the bulk of farmers in eastern Indian States have not been as motivated to join the agitation as their counterparts in the northwest, as they have not even experienced many of the benefits that the laws...

-Countercurrents.org Real life has a way of surprising theory. One of the most intensely discussed theoretical questions on the Left has been how to bring agricultural labourers and peasants, including well-to-do peasants, together in a common struggle against landlord domination in India’s countryside. Numerous Marxist gatherings have for years discussed the contradiction between peasants and labourers holding up a decisive resolution of the contradiction between the landlords and the rest of...

-Livemint.com * The latest Situation Assessment Survey adds to findings that reveal worsening agrarian distress * Our agricultural sector has been in a state of perpetual decline after 2012-13 and is reeling under such shocks as back-to-back droughts, demonetization and the covid-19 pandemic Earlier this month, the National Statistical Office released the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of agricultural households for the 2018-19 agricultural year, which runs from July to June. This is the...

-Foundation for Agrarian Studies blog The announcement on September 8, 2021 of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the upcoming Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) will be seen as adding insult to injury by thousands of protesting farmers who have sustained their agitation against the three anti-farmer Farm Acts for over a year. This is because the procurement prices offered are not merely grossly inadequate but also because the package comes dressed in...

-The Indian Express The pandemic revealed the precarious state of India’s informal sector. Localised production, trade and markets offer a better alternative to existing paradigm of development. Another wave of COVID, another round of lockdowns, another long journey back home for migrant workers. If there is one lesson we are learning after a year of COVID-19, it is that we have not learnt any lessons, at least not the crucial ones. 2020 exposed...