-Economic and Political Weekly Agricultural market reforms recently enacted by the National Democratic Alliance government reflect the Bharatiya Janata Party’s determination to introduce agrobusinesses into agriculture and push further its agenda of centralisation of economic power and decision-making. The opposition to the reforms by farmers, many state governments, and regional political formations poses the most formidable challenge, so far, to this government. The contesting claims have missed the dimension of the...

-The Indian Express Participating in indefinite dharnas at petrol pumps, near toll plazas, even on rail tracks, elderly farmers tell The Indian Express that age is just a number. A 94-year-old farmer leader cycles 5 km to reach the dharna spot, an 83-year-old says, ‘looking at our united struggle…I think, I will live more’. Their wrinkled faces bear scars of decades spent toiling on fields, but the zeal is intact. Participating in...

-TheWire.in With low levels of farmers' income and a lack of assured price mechanism, what impact will the three farm bills have in the long term on India's agrarian economy. Here's an analysis. Last week, the Union government passed three bills to replace the three ordinances that were enacted during the COVID-19 lockdown. These three bills, expected to bring revolutionary changes to agrarian context and help double farmers’ incomes are: The Farmers’...

-The Indian Express As Opposition and regional parties protest the contentious farm laws, now challenged in Supreme Court, engaging with the key question: Does the enactment of the laws violate the federal principle? On Sunday, the President gave assent to the controversial farm Bills passed by Parliament last week. Amid protests by farmers’ organisations across the country, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Punjab have said they might not implement the new laws, Kerala and...

-TheIndiaForum.in The rules of the game in markets have changed dramatically. But there are problems with the fundamental premise of the approach, there are doubts about the future of state intervention & there are major lacunae in the bills, all making the outcome uncertain. On 5 June 2020, amidst growing concern over the seismic collapse of the economy and the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government of India promulgated three ordinances...