-The Hindu Strengthening the repayment capacity of farmers by improving and stabilising their income is the only way to keep them out of distress Indian agriculture is characterised by low scale and low productivity. About 85% of the operational landholdings in the country are below 5 acres and 67% farm households survive on an average landholding of one acre. More than half of the area under cultivation does not have access to...
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GST effect: Fate of Ludhiana plywood industry hangs in balance -Sumeer Singh
-Hindustan Times Ever since the goods and services tax (GST) was brought to force, there has been a 60% fall in the demand for plywood, owing to the tax rate of 28% on furniture goods. Situated on the outskirts of Ludhiana city in Hambran, is a small plywood manufacturing unit. Until last month, the manufacturing unit had a 110-strong workforce. But now the owner, Wazir Sood, has temporarily laid off 70 workers....
More »Drought shadow looms over deep south -Harish Damodaran & Amitabh Sinha
-The Indian Express In 2016, south interior Karnataka recorded 22 per cent deficit rainfall during the southwest monsoon season (June-September). Reservoir levels in the Cauvery basin have fallen lower with back-to-back monsoon failure and Karnataka is headed to Assembly elections in barely eight months. If Maharashtra, particularly Marathwada, was the epicentre of drought in 2014 and 2015, that has now seemingly shifted deep southward to a stretch covering the old Mysore region...
More »Health ministry claims it had no say in fine print of Niti Aayog plan to privatise some hospitals -Menaka Rao
-Scroll.in The ministry says it will respond to a draft model contract that has been sent to states for comments. The Ministry for Health and Family Welfare has said that it will respond to the Niti Aayog’s draft agreement proposing the terms for privatising district hospitals across the country. As Scroll.in reported, the government policy think tank sent a letter to states in June proposing a model by which private companies...
More »The draft laws for organic foods, if cleared, will adversely affect small farmers -Chandra Bhushan
-Hindustan Times The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s new certification regulation is going to hinder the growth of the sector. Instead of targeting small farmers, why not make laws that require mandatory labelling of foods grown with pesticides, chemicals or GMO etc? The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recently announced the Draft Food and Standards (Organic Food) Regulations, 2017, aimed at curbing sale of fake organic...
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