-Scroll.in Recent farm loan waivers and income support schemes have had little impact amid growing agrarian distress. In January, farmers across the state of Punjab took to the roads in protest. In 12 districts of the state, they were protesting against banks that filed cases against loan defaulting farmers. Also part of their demands from the government was compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for families of farmers that had committed suicides,...
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YV Reddy, former Reserve Bank of India governor and chairperson of the 14th Finance Commission, interviewed by Roshan Kishore (Hindustan Times)
-Hindustan Times The 15th Finance Commission (FC) has to submit its report in October 2019, which will be another important event in the evolution of India’s fiscal federalism framework. The tenure of the Narendra Modi government has seen important changes in India’s fiscal federalism set-up such as the abolition of the Planning Commission (PC) and the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The 15th Finance Commission (FC) has to submit...
More »Everybody loves a farmer -Vijoo Krishnan
-Frontline.in The cash transfer schemes the Narendra Modi government and several State governments have announced to woo the peasantry ahead of the election, like the loan waivers, short-change farmers because they avoid the vital issue of remunerative prices for farm produce. In a sudden flurry of new-found concern for the long-suffering Indian peasant, parties across the political spectrum are desperately trying to woo this section of society. In fact, ever since...
More »Is farmer income support a sustainable solution? -Sanjiv Phansalkar
-VillageSquare.in Income support to smallholder farmers is similar to palliative measures like minimum support prices or loan waivers that do not address the problem of an unsustainable population living on a fixed resource base The government in the budget for this year has announced an allocation of Rs 75,000 crore for direct income transfer of Rs 6,000 annually for every farmer who owns less than 2 hectares of land. This amount...
More »Farm loan waivers kill credit culture, says Raghuram Rajan
-PTI NEW DELHI: India needs to focus on resolution of farm distress rather than loan waivers which kill the credit culture, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday. "First we need to worry about why people are so distressed and angry. There is a lot of agriculture distress. I personally believe that farm loan waivers are not the answers. But there are other answers," he said when asked about what should...
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