-Hindustan Times Recent research at the London School of Economics examines a decade of high-quality farmer-buyer data from Kenya during a period when it introduced radical farm laws to encourage agri-businesses to determine impacts on small farmers In the debate on new farm laws, emotions are running high with concerns that small farmers are being pitted against large agri-businesses. The new laws contain mostly untried policies and it is difficult to gauge...

-Hindustan Times CAG reports in the past have been questioned by critics, for instance its estimate that the 2007-2008 allocation of 2G spectrum had caused a notional loss to the exchequer of ₹1.76 lakh crore, and that the allotment of coal blocks had caused a similar loss of ₹1.86 lakh crore. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Girish Chandra Murmu, says the government auditor is adopting a policy of “constructive...

-The Hindu In the event of further judicial intervention, there are grounds and an opportunity for the government to revisit the laws With the Supreme Court of India staying the operation of the farm laws and setting up a committee of experts to negotiate with the government and the farmers, the agitation being carried on by the farmers is entering a new phase. The farmers’ unions have not reacted favourably to the...

-The Hindu If the top court does find itself mandated by a higher public duty to intervene, then it must observe some essentials For nearly half a hundred days, the farmers of North India protesting against the recent farm laws have been at the capital’s outskirts, braving the bitter cold, and growing in numbers. They have mostly kept the peace and their dignity, and their communities seem ready to support them for...

-Hindustan Times This entails addressing prevailing systemic deficiencies along with managing the added burden of Covid-19. India’s health sector requires a two-fold intervention by the government. The extraordinary situation created by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has exposed the vulnerabilities of our fragile health-care system, demands an equally extraordinary intervention by the government. The expectation from the Union Budget 2021-22 is for the central government to lead from the front in the health...