-TheWire.in Farmers may have to pay 18% GST on the income earned through corporate Farming, which the new laws are expected to promote. Like a retro Bollywood movie with multiple double acts and plot twists, the controversy surrounding the three farm laws is not just limited to the specific legislations per se, but there is more to it, much more sinister. When the Income Tax Act, 1995 (ITA) and Central Goods and...

-Down to Earth Agriculture was the only sector to have clocked a positive growth at constant prices in 2020-21 The share of agriculture in gross domestic product (GDP) has reached almost 20 per cent for the first time in the last 17 years, making it the sole bright spot in GDP performance during 2020-21, according to the Economic Survey 2020-2021. The resilience of the Farming community in the face of adversities made agriculture...

-Down to Earth The ‘real owner’ of forest land is still the forest department. Such brazen violation of the law betrays a systematic attempt to implement FRA, reducing it to a symbol rather than a tool of empowerment The Dangs, the smallest district in Gujarat, is a thickly forested and tribal-dominated region that has been away from the ‘developmental’ paradigm till today. Some 77.5 per cent of its area is under forest cover,...

-IndiaClimateDialogue.net Protests by Indian farmers against three new farm laws have deep roots in income insecurity, which is driven by changing rainfall patterns and incentives that promote the overuse of water The protests by Indian farmers against three laws initially passed as ordinances have gone from sporadic in August 2020 to the biggest peaceful civil society protest in the world. Despite 11 rounds of talks and the creation of a committee by...

-IDROnline.org Agriculture value-chains can only be strengthened by listening to multiple actors; most importantly, farmers. India has been witnessing a spate of month-long farmer protests across the country, particularly in the national capital, against the recently introduced farm bills by the central government. One of the major reasons behind these agitations, including calls for repealing the law, is that farmers were not actively involved in the policymaking cycle of these laws, which...