-Livemint.com Slogans, vision statements and acronyms are unlikely to be of any help to those in distress As the details of the mega fiscal package of ₹20 trillion announced by the prime minister are slowly being revealed by the finance minister (FM), it is increasingly becoming clear that it has less to do with the immediate crisis of lives and livelihood and more to do with the long-term agenda of reforms and...

-Vikalp.ind.in The sudden imposition of a national lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 has impacted the agricultural sector in many different ways. Of these, the disruption in the functioning of the agricultural markets has been one of the most significant. The lockdown was announced with little planning. Despite the fact that the rabi crops were being harvested or were about to be harvested in many parts of the country, the central...

These days a lot many articles, reports, documents, etc. are appearing in the public domain on Coronavirus infection and related issues. An attempt has been made in the present news alert to put together in one place some of the best articles, reports, blogs, webinars, podcasts, etc., which can be useful for our readers. We have divided the resources under various themes for the convenience of our readers and social media...

-Society for Social and Economic Research The sudden announcement of a national lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in a severe disruption of food supply chains. The lockdown was announced without any preparation, and nothing was mentioned about excluding agricultural production and marketing operations from the purview of the lockdown when the Prime Minister first announced these restrictions. Once the lockdown was announced, governments scrambled to keep the...

-The Hindu Business Line With bumper harvests, farmers are forced to sell the stocks to middlemen for a pittance or let them go to waste. Better integration of markets, development and maintenance of storage facilities could help avoid this problem Farmers are the worst hit due to the coronavirus lockdown, unable to harvest crops and sell the harvested produce in the market. The dairy farmers of Assam and Karnataka; and vegetable, fruit...