-Down to Earth Eligibility threshold for FPOs should be reduced or support provided to meet the criteria, experts feel Farmer producer organisations (FPO) figure prominently in government policies and the ambitious plan to double farmers’ income by 2022. But funds remain elusive for these bodies, according to a recent analysis.  Just 1-5 per cent of FPOs have received funding under central government schemes introduced to promote them in the last seven years, the...

-The Hindu Amid religious polarisation, agrarian issues still resonate with the community ALIGARH/ HATHRAS: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces the Jat challenge in western Uttar Pradesh, the message from the ground in Aligarh and Hathras districts is mixed. While there are many who still swear by the ruling party for providing suraksha, bijli aur sadak (safety, electricity and roads), there are others who feel the party has let down a vote...

-The Hindu 52 days after it was announced as a top relief package, Finance Minister says it ‘is in the process’. A Rs.60,000-crore loan guarantee scheme for helping sectors hit the hardest by COVID-19 is yet to get off the ground, 52 days after it figured at the top of an economic relief package to cope with the second wave’s shocks. This proposed credit support was part of a new ₹1.1 lakh crore...

The recently released quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data broadly confirms the dip in employment and jobs during the countrywide lockdown period, followed by a certain degree of recovery in the post-lockdown months last year as have been indicated by various survey-based studies and research papers. The quarterly bulletin on PLFS provides data on key employment and unemployment indicators i.e. Unemployment Rate (UR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Labour...

-The Hindu Opposition members question government’s commitment to democratic norms The Lok Sabha on Monday passed three Bills in 20 minutes as disruption by Opposition members over the Pegasus snooping controversy and the farms continued into the last week of the monsoon session of Parliament. The government also introduced three Bills in the din, prompting Congress leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Manish Tewari to question the government’s commitment to democratic norms. RSP’s N.K. Premachandran...