-Financial Express Crop loss, lower procurement to deplete FCI stocks; local supplies may suffice for PDS, free-ration schemes At Punjab’s Rajpura mandi, private traders are busy buying the wheat crop brought in by farmers at marginally above the minimum support price (MSP). Traders have been super-active in the mandi, one of the largest centres of wheat trade in the country, and their daily purchases often exceed the official procurement by the state-run...

A recently released study, which has been done by Dalberg in collaboration with Kantar, and with support from the Omidyar Network India, brings to light both the supply and demand-side perspectives on the 'One Nation One Ration Card' (ONORC) scheme. Titled 'Fulfilling the promise of One Nation One Ration Card: A frontline perspective from 5 Indian states', the survey for the study was conducted in five states i.e., Andhra Pradesh,...

-Business Standard The current growth in the Indian cultivator's real or inflation-adjusted income, at about 3.5 per cent, is barely a third of the growth rate required to achieve this goal Earlier this month, the Central government said in a reply in Parliament that it has taken several measures to double farmers’ income by 2022 and that the progress made so far indicates that it is ‘on the right track’. However, a closer...

-The Pioneer Industrial states want to import coal to make up for the shortfall Summer temperatures are soaring and so is the power demand. Some States have already scheduled planned outages. And we are now told that the power companies face shortage of coal. Industrial states want to import coal to make up for the shortfall. That is a costly proposition beyond the reach of smaller states. Is there a coal crisis?...

-South Asia Netwrok on Dams, Rivers and People In addition to destruction of rivers eco-system and disruption of environmental services to riparian communities, the illegal and unsustainable sand mining practices in India have also been causing avoidable violence and accidents resulting in scores of human deaths and injuries on annual basis. However, there is no comprehensive picture emerging on this man made disaster. To fill the gap, SANDRP has been trying...