-The Tribune ‘High indebtedness, inability to repay loan led to extreme step’ Over 7,300 farm labourers in Punjab have died by suicide between 2000 and 2018. As many as 5,765 of these (79 per cent of total suicides by farm labourers) were because of high indebtedness and inability to repay the loan. An average agricultural labour family in the state has a debt of Rs 76,017 while the agricultural labourer suicide victim family...
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‘Negative support’ to Indian farmers: myth or reality? -Sachin Kumar Sharma, Paavni Mathur and Raihan Akhter
-Frontline.in The argument that the Indian farmer is overburdened by “negative support” has become contentious in the context of the recent Farm laws. In reality, this does not hold up to scrutiny. In the heat of the ongoing protests against the new Farm laws, some views have emerged that the state has saddled the Indian farmer with excessive taxes. In support of this contention, methodology and data from the Organisation for Economic...
More »The impasse over Farm laws likely to go on till May -Sayantan Bera
-Livemint.com The farmers’ agitation at Delhi’s doorstep against laws enacted by the Centre hits the four-month mark on Friday. A Supreme Court-appointed committee has just submitted its report on the issue. Can the warring sides arrive at a resolution any time soon? Mint explores The farmers’ agitation at Delhi’s doorstep against laws enacted by the Centre hits the four-month mark on Friday. A Supreme Court-appointed committee has just submitted its report on...
More »In the Farm laws protests, are Punjab’s landless peasants getting left behind? -Prabhjit Singh
-CaravanMagazine.in On 21 February, over one lakh farmers and agricultural labourers gathered at a rally in Punjab’s Barnala district to pledge unity in the movement against the 2020 Farm laws. The rally was organised by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) and the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, two of the biggest unions that represent the interests of the landless peasants and work in tandem with each other. The BKU (EU) president,...
More »Modi’s India proves that liberal economics can happily coexist with political illiberalism -Indrajit Roy
-Scroll.in Going against conventional wisdom, the Indian middle class is not a source of liberalism. A profound contradiction lies at the heart of contemporary India’s political economy. On the one hand, it embraces economic liberalism. In September 2020, it legislated laws aimed at liberalising agriculture from state-guaranteed protections. The recent budget, passed in February, was high on promises of accelerating divestment of public sector undertakings. On the other hand, however, this enthusiasm...
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