-The Hindu An opening up has to be accompanied by an increase in relief budget for the most vulnerable After a 39-day lockdown, what will be the shape of things to come? How should one strike a balance between ensuring livelihoods, minimising strife, and maintaining social distancing? In a discussion moderated by G. Ananthakrishnan, Reetika Khera, and Giridhar R. Babu examine the options. Edited excerpts: * With less than a fortnight left for...
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Only 10% free pulses under govt scheme distributed to poor so far -Harikishan Sharma
-The Indian Express According to sources, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), which comes under administrative control of the Agriculture Ministry, has been tasked with ensuring supply of pulses from the buffer stocks it maintains. Announced as part of the COVID-19 relief package about a month ago, free pulses — 1 kg per family — to beneficiaries of the National Food SECurity Act (NFSA) are yet to reach...
More »The great lockdown gums up animal farms -Sayantan Bera
-Livemint.com * India’s cattle are on an enforced diet, milk’s value is on the slide and chicken farmers are in deep despair * The livestock SECtor contributes 30% to India’s agricultural GDP and is valued at over ₹9 trillion. Yet, during the lockdown, policy and remedial interventions have largely focused on crops NEW DELHI: Shravan Kumar Yadav often wakes up in the middle of the night these days. The incessant mooing and grunting...
More »The key strategy is fiscal empowerment of States -M Govinda Rao
-The Hindu The Centre must recognise that winning the war on COVID-19 is linked to the States being armed with enough resources The scale of disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has never been seen before. Even as we are in the midst of the SECond phase of the national lockdown, there is no clarity on the time it will take to come out of the crisis, the extent of damage it...
More »India’s farmers can keep economy running in Covid crisis. But who will tell Modi govt that? -Yogendra Yadav
-ThePrint.in This is the moment to thank farmers. You don’t need thali or taali for that, you just need to ensure they get a fair price. Then we can kickstart India’s economy. As many states in north India begin their food grain procurement operations and more and more news begin to filter in from rural India, we can see one of the biggest blunders of the ongoing coronavirus lockdown strategy: it might...
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