-Outlook Good monsoon or bad, glut or drought, boom or bust...it’s always fair weather for the range of middlemen who come between the farmer and consumer. An anatomy of the trade. One of the axioms of logic is called the Law of the Excluded Middle. Something has to be either true or false—there’s no middle ground. As we all know, economics works a bit differently. Facts can be fickle, data pliable, and...
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Maharashtra's agriculture conundrum: How sugarcane politics roiled other nutrition crops in the state -RN Bhaskar
-Firstpost.com The battle for the rural heartland has commenced in full earnest. Even though the two main opposition parties are not officially behind the strike called by farmers, their support and muscle is in full evidence. Surprisingly, the Shiv Sena – an alliance partner of the present government -- has also supported the agitation. Yesterday, milk and vegetables had to be brought into some of Maharashtra’s cities under police escort. The shrill...
More »Delhi government starts langar for poor who are affected by currency ban
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Call it playing politics or what you will, but in a move that will gladden many, the Delhi government yesterday began providing free food for the poor who are now doubly hit by the shortage of cash due to demonetisation. "This move has been undertaken to provide the poor with three meals a day and save them from dying of hunger due to demonetisation," tweeted Delhi's...
More »Jats think they’re backward; there’s a reason -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express Agriculture doesn’t pay that much, land is no longer the source of power it once was, and the community has failed to keep up with a changing India. The Jats conform fully to the idea of a ‘dominant caste’, a term the eminent sociologist M N Srinivas used to refer to any community that is both numerically strong in a village or local area, as well as wields...
More »Free run for the rent-seekers -Biswajit Dhar
-The Hindu With the U.S. showing a preference for plurilateral agreements over WTO multilateralism, developing nations must defend the global trading system against transnational corporations The 10th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which also marked the completion of two decades of functioning of the most recent of the multilateral institutions, ended with an agreement among trade ministers of the member countries that may have pushed the organisation to the...
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