-Down to Earth Despite the rural hinterland being in the throes of agrarian distress, the incumbent coalition has won handsomely in these very areas The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has beaten all odds to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Prominent among these odds was the agrarian crisis that rural India is currently in the throes of. Since 2014, the country has suffered two major droughts and 850-odd...
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Could the single engine driving India crash? Yes, if you go by one of Modi's top guys
-The Economic Times At a time when the shadow of a slowdown lengthens but the government steadfastly downplays any such concern, here comes a cracker of an observation from one of India's most celebrated economists who also happens to be a vital cog in Modi's policy team. In an interview to NDTV, Rathin Roy, member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) and Director of National Institute of Public Finance &...
More »Perils of over-promising -Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express For all their talk on farm distress, on agriculture, BJP, Congress show they have not learnt from past failures. We often feel proud of our democratic system. But it also has a shortcoming, which has been magnified in the current election season. The conversation today is not about what the BJP/NDA promised in its manifesto of 2014, and how far they have been able to deliver on their...
More »Are farm loan waivers a political gimmick? -Vikas Dhoot
-The Hindu Several interventions are needed on the demand and supply side to alleviate farm distress Loan waivers remain the preferred solution for governments to tackle farm distress. S. Mahendra Dev and M. Govinda Rao talk about the inability of governments to think of long-term solutions to tackle farm distress, in a discussion moderated by Vikas Dhoot. Edited excerpts: * Despite farm productivity rising, severe distress in the sector is a concern. How...
More »PM's pension scheme: Two months into launch, workers not keen, call it poll gimmick -Christina George
-The Indian Express Makhan Lal, a construction worker who is on the verge of quitting work because of a dislocated shoulder, says: “I haven’t heard of Modi’s pension scheme or Rahul Gandhi’s NYAY... what I know is that we will remain poor, this basti will continue to have open sewage and during rains our houses will be under sewer water.” Chand Lal, 45, was back at his 8×8 feet shanty in...
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