-Hindustan Times Harsimrat is the only SAD representative in the Modi government. Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday quit the Modi government opposing the farm bills that seek to liberalise the agriculture sector. The move came shortly after Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal announced in the Lok Sabha that the minister will quit protesting the Centre’s anti-farmer move. Harsimrat Badal is the only SAD representative in the Modi government. The...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Rural distress looms: dip in crop prices, remittances; rising Covid cases -Aanchal Magazine, Sunny Verma and Anil Sasi
-The Indian Express While the over 3% agriculture growth in the first quarter factored in strong Rabi procurement, with high-price realisations getting reflected in the output numbers, fresh data from mandis indicate a slide in the prices of the intercrop produce — horticulture, milk and poultry etc. The rural sector may have held out the only sliver of hope amid the broader collapse in the first-quarter GDP numbers but there are fresh...
More »An agriculture-led revival as flawed claim -R Ramakumar
-The Hindu The crisis in agriculture demands that the government announce a strong fiscal stimulus for the rural economy A rather confident statement heard in the midst of India’s COVID-19-induced economic slowdown is this: “Agriculture will lead India’s economic revival”. But how valid is this claim put forward by government spokespersons and some observers? Four major arguments are offered. First, India’s food grain production in 2019-20 was 3.7% higher than in 2018-19. The...
More »MILES TO GO… Organic and natural farming still have a lot of ground to cover in India, says new CSE report
-Centre for Science and Environment * Niti Aayog vice chairperson Rajiv Kumar releases the report, which provides the real picture of organic farming in India: only 2 per cent of India’s net sown area organically farmed, and a mere 1.3 per cent of farmers registered to do organic farming * Organic and natural farming must be upscaled to make Indian agriculture sustainable, says the report * Needs to be turned into a mass...
More »An Expert Explains: Decoding GDP contraction --Neelkanth Mishra
-The Indian Express The contraction seen in first-quarter GDP data is severe, but not unexpected. What should be done — or not done – at the level of govt policy so that the economy gets a chance to rebound as quickly as possible? * How should one read the first-quarter GDP data and the contraction by 23.9%? What signal does it offer for the future? And does it give any idea of...
More »