-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre is working on a plan to provide relief to farmers and is weighing options on a direct benefit transfer scheme for the distressed sector modelled on the Telangana system. Several rounds of discussions have been held and the view emerging within the government favours a limited direct benefit transfer scheme to help small and marginal farmers meet expenses for seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and labour. Sources...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government's ambitious crop insurance scheme has proved to be a jackpot for insurance companies last year, which collectively earned 85 per cent profit (after excluding administrative and reinsurance expenses) during the 2017-18 kharif season. Kharif is an Indian cropping season which extends from July to October. 17 insurance firms (5 public and 12 private) empanelled under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) registered a...

-Livemint.com WHO says the Indian govt should ‘reconsider’ the compensation clause because an approval to the rules in the current form would affect the conduct of clinical trials in India New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) has told the central government that the United Nations (UN) agency’s work with India would be “hampered” and drug companies driven away if the government goes ahead with stringent draft rules for compensation in case...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday raised the minimum support price for the common variety of paddy by what it described as a "historic" margin, seeking to address rural disquiet that the BJP has identified as one of its weaknesses in the run-up to key elections. However, a powerful lobby of farmers has termed it a "jumla" (an idiomatic expression that loosely translates as a hollow promise or...

-Frontline.in The government ought to have specified its definition of cost of crop production in the Budget to prevent any confusion in the minds of people on minimum support prices. Speaking at the Krishi Unnati Mela 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly complained that confusion was being spread about the announcement on minimum support prices (MSPs) made in the Finance Minister’s 2018 Budget speech. The speech had assured farmers that they would,...