-The Indian Express These enterprises — whom she broadly categorises as ‘rural commercial capital’ — enjoy privileged access to formal credit networks. In her insightful study of the working of agricultural markets in West Bengal, British development studies scholar Barbara Harris-White has documented in detail how trade in farm produce is controlled through a web of rural and semi-urban agro commercial enterprises. These enterprises — whom she broadly categorises as ‘rural commercial capital’...

-The Indian Express Unorganised sector is worst-affected by demonetisation. Can banks go to them? An incident in 2000, during my initial years of work, woke me up to an uncomfortable question about post-economic liberalisation India. I was at a meeting with waste-pickers at Digha in Patna and a woman told me of her troubles with a Rs 500 note. She had saved money and changed it into a Rs 500 note, wrapped...

-The Indian Express It will also promote indigenous research and science, incentivise pulses production, rationalise pricing. The inferno of environmental pollution that the nation’s capital and its surroundings have been witnessing has many causes, including weather conditions (thermal inversion) that facilitate the settling of particulate matter and other pollution, dust on the streets generated in part from construction activity, and vehicle-related emissions. Particularly critical is the burning of paddy after the kharif...

-Livemint.com A World Bank report cautions that the urban poor will bear the brunt of losses if cities don’t become more resilient to natural disasters, shocks, and stresses New Delhi: By 2030, without significant investment into making cities more resilient, climate change may push up to 77 million more urban residents into poverty, said a new report released by the World Bank on Wednesday. The report ‘Investing in Urban Resilience’ by the World...

-The Indian Express The government has failed to provide the right incentives to farmers India’s quest for self-sufficiency in pulses goes back, at least, to 1990-1991, when pulses were incorporated in the technology mission on oilseeds. In 1992, and 1995-1996, oil palm and maize were added to the mission, which was re-christened the Integrated Scheme on Oilseeds, Pulses, Oil palm and Maize (ISOPOM). In 2007, ISOPOM’s pulses component was merged with...