-Livemint.com Linking MSPs to a multiple of costs and ignoring other dynamics, such as demand and global prices, risks creating distortions and disincentivizing productivity Government policymaking seems to be making a volte-face from supporting consumers (by keeping food inflation low), to supporting producers (by raising food prices). In the 2018-19 Union budget, the government “decided to keep minimum support prices (MSP) for all unannounced crops of kharif at least at one-and-a-half times of...

-The Times of India BENGALURU: Highly cash-dependent traders in gems and diamonds have cost banks at least Rs 5,000 crore through 90 defaults, bank-wise and company-wise data on wilful defaulters compiled by the Federation of Bank of India Staff Unions (FBISU) shows. The top loser is PNB, with just nine defaulters but a loss of Rs 1,790 crore — four times the amount SBI lost. SBI reported the most number of wilful defaults...

-Outlook “BMS decided to boycott ILC due to the centre’s anti-labour policies," RSS TRADE UNION President said. The Centre has indefinitely postponed the Indian Labour Conference to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after RSS TRADE UNION BMS threatened to boycott it over the Union budget that was “unsympathetic to labour and workers”. At the 47th ILC scheduled to be held on February 26 and 27, TRADE UNIONs and employers were...

-Down to Earth What is the use of strategy when no special budget was allocated to double farmers’ income, says a senior NITI Aayog official anonymously In a two-day closed door meeting on doubling farmers’ income, the government claimed that there is no lack of funds to implement a seven-point strategy devised to double farmers’ income by 2022. The national conference, Agriculture 2022 - Doubling Farmers’ Income, which ends today, hosts sessions...

-The Indian Express Operation Greens must build forward and backward linkages between farmers and markets. It can learn from Operation Flood. The finance minister announced Operation Greens, on the lines of Operation Flood, with a seed capital of Rs 500 crore in his speech on February 1. Three days later, the Prime Minister backed the scheme at a parivartan rally in Bengaluru. He said farmers are his TOP priority — T is...