-TheWire.in The finance minister has made a big announcement on minimum support price, but he should make it clear whether all he is promising is to take the prices back to the UPA-II levels. The government has done it again. Like last year, there has been much hype about a pro-farmer Budget, but in actuality it rests on misleading claims which don’t address the farming crisis. Last year, the agriculture credit target...
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In loan waivers, 'moral hazard' and continued hope for political gains -Shaji Vikraman
-The Indian Express Urjit Patel has voiced concern publicly over the latest loan waiver — saying it engendered a moral hazard and undermined the honest credit culture. In February 1990, in the months preceding the build-up to the balance of payments crisis the next year, Madhu Dandavate, Finance Minister in V P Singh’s National Front government, announced a debt relief scheme for farmers to fulfill a promise made by the alliance in...
More »The high price of Big Pharma greed -Leena Menghaney
-The Hindu In 2014, an Indian pharmaceutical company was globally the first to receive approval to market a biosimilar, thereby affordable version, of the breast cancer drug Trastuzumab. Almost immediately, Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, innovator of the drug, filed a suit against the Indian Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to block its sale. The action firmly put their profits ahead of the lives of women with breast cancer. Roche effectively embroiled India’s...
More »Rural employment scheme gets highest-ever funding
-The Hindu FM allocates Rs.48,000 crore for MGNREGA; says it will be brought under digital scrutiny The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), once described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “living monument of the UPA’s failure,” got its highest ever allocation — Rs.48,000 crore — since its inception over a decade ago. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however, indicated that the funds dispensed would come under increased digital scrutiny. “The...
More »Drought relief: TN wants Centre to give Rs. 39,565 cr from disaster fund
-The Hindu Business Line CM writes to Modi, submits memorandum Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has urged the Centre to sanction ?39,565 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund, and to release immediately Rs. 1,000 crore ‘on account’ to take up drought mitigation work in the state. The state was hit by heavy floods in December 2015 and by Cyclone Vardah in December 2016. The State Disaster Response Fund is not sufficient to...
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