-The Indian Express The analysis is based on new voters who crossed the eligibility age of 18 years after the 2014 elections and were added during subsequent annual summary revisions of electoral rolls. This Lok Sabha election, the youth may hold the key in as many as 282 seats across 29 states, where there could be more first-time voters than their respective winning margins in 2014, an analysis of Election Commission...
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Cane dues in Uttar Pradesh may cross Rs 10,000 crore -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express The only way to prevent a further piling-up of cane arrears would be via improved sugar realisations, according to a miller. Arrears in payments to cane farmers by sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh (UP) have almost touched Rs 8,500 crore and could cross the Rs 10,000-crore mark by March-end, just ahead of voting for the coming Lok Sabha elections. According to data compiled by the Cane Commissioner’s Office in...
More »No shortcuts to income guarantee -Harsh Mander
-The Indian Express Rahul Gandhi’s proposed scheme will do more harm than good if it comes at the cost of existing subsidies for the poor. Congress president Rahul Gandhi signaled the earnestness of his party’s resolve to end poverty and hunger by announcing an untried policy instrument — a Minimum Income Guarantee for the poor. “Millions of our brothers and sisters” could not be allowed to “suffer the scourge of poverty”...
More »Rash U-turns, half-baked plans -Jean Dreze
-The Indian Express Social policy is in danger of getting lost in electoral histrionics. As the country inches towards parliamentary elections, a deep confusion pervades the realm of social policy. When the Narendra Modi government came to power five years ago, there were high expectations of a rollback in welfare schemes. The previous government, so went the story, had gone overboard with social spending, and Modi would set this right. In...
More »Grain populism: As polls near, states embark on aggressive paddy procurement -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express Chhattisgarh, Bengal and UP emerge frontrunners in extending MSP-plus support to farmers Call it the impact of the ensuing national elections: Governmental procurement of rice, the country’s largest crop by planted area, looks set to surpass 40 million tonnes (mt) for the time ever in the current marketing year that runs from October to September. That would work out to more than a third of the total projected...
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