-The Hindu The top-down, rushed approach of the government in reaching out to farmers is likely to end in failure This year’s Interim Budget is being regarded as a big spread for farmers. The government announced its decision to transfer Rs.6,000 every year directly to 12 crore farmers holding cultivable land up to 2 hectares through the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme. While this is a progressive step, is it...
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How useful will farmer support be? -Sanjiv Phansalkar
-VillageSquare.in It will not be easy to optimally deploy the basic income support announced by the government for small and marginal farmers. The scheme has large exclusions in the landless and the women as well India has taken the first step in providing basic income support to small and marginal farmers owning up to 2 hectares of land. This is to be a direct benefit transfer (DBT) of an annual Rs 6,000...
More »Inequality is the moral challenge of our times, Stop evading it -Amitabh Behar
-The Times of India (Voices) Recently the ever-eloquent and formidable P Sainath was with us and his story and visual image for the day was the contrast between the thirst and misery of the Marathwada Drought, including scarcity of drinking water on the one hand, and on the other hand the luxury of independent swimming pools in each flat on every floor of a multi-storied building being advertised in Mumbai during...
More »An appeasement Budget -Puja Mehra
-The Hindu The Interim Budget makes clear the class hierarchy in the Modi government’s scheme of populism Interim Budget 2019 has sought to make amends for all the wrongs of almost five years of the Narendra Modi government. For example, the debilitating impact of demonetisation on the informal sector that employs nearly 90% of the workforce had long been suspected on the basis of anecdotal evidence. The findings of the National Sample...
More »The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) -- Lesser than a Solution -Santosh Verma
-Vikalp.ind.in During the past three and half decades, various governments at the centre introduced several crop insurance schemes for the farmers to lessen the risks (partial or full) involved due to natural calamities and crop diseases. In 1985, in its very first attempt, the Government of India (GoI) launched Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme (CCIS) with a mandate to a national coverage. In 1999, CCIS was replaced with a new scheme called...
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