-News18.com Acclaimed journalist and Founder-Editor of the People’s Archive of Rural India, P Sainath attributes the existential crisis confronting India’s agrarian society to macro-economic policies set in motion 25 years ago. Talking to Anuradha SenGupta, Sainath makes a case for state intervention in agriculture and says the Modi government, with its shifting positions and policies like demonetisation has only aggravated the assault on agrarian livelihoods. Dismissing the buzz about imminent new initiatives...
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Farm loan waivers can derail India's growth story -Ramesh Chand
-Hindustan Times Loan waiver provides strong disincentive for those who repaid loan on time and perverse incentive for default. But the most serious effect of the waiver is potential risk of fiscal slippage . India’s agricultural economy witnessed significant changes during the post reforms period, many of which were positive, but some were negative. Income of farmers could not keep pace with their aspirations and fast growth in the income of non-farm...
More »Prof. Abhijit Sen, a former member of the erstwhile Planning Commission, interviewed by M Rajshekhar (Scroll.in)
-Scroll.in The former Planning Commission member explains why the country needs to tread carefully on this idea. On January 1, when Indian news agency ANI asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the government’s plans to reduce agrarian distress, he said loan waivers do not work as a very small segment of farmers take loans from banks. “A majority of them take loans from money lenders,” said Modi. “When governments make such announcements,...
More »Indefinite strike by Bihar's ASHA workers is another reminder that they are overworked, underpaid -Kavita Krishnan
-Scroll.in The ASHA unions in Bihar are demanding government employee status and a minimum wage. Accredited Social Health Activists or ASHA workers in Bihar went on an indefinite strike from December 1 with a 12-point charter of demands. Bihar has 93,687 ASHA workers – the second highest contingent of the one million ASHA workers in India. They are the key link between the healthcare system and rural populations and have to perform...
More »Justice, forgiveness, and the call to forget -Rajeev Bhargava
-The Hindu Forgiveness can play a reparative role provided it is seen as complementary to justice, not a substitute for it Post-Partition, India has witnessed innumerable acts of collective violence of which three clearly stand out as the most barbaric: the Nellie massacre in Assam in 1983; the horrific slaughter of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984; and the diabolical pogrom in Gujarat in 2002. Need for retributive justice No society that calls itself civilised...
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