-The Indian Express There is an ambiguous provision to levy income tax on “dairying”. Either the provision should be removed or it should be clarified that it does not include dairy farmers. Dairying is a part of agriculture and as per the Constitution, it is a state subject. Those in power may not yet be accepting blame for the barrage of negative news on the state of the economy, but cracks are...
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Is MGNREGS the answer to the rural slowdown? -Sneha Alexander & Nikita Kwatra
-Livemint.com MGNREGS could alleviate rural distress but, in its current form, its overall impact on the rural economy is limited in scope With rural distress deepening across India and private consumption growing anaemically, calls for ramping up the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), are growing louder ahead of the upcoming budget. Proponents of MGNREGS believe that it may be the only ammunition in the government’s arsenal to fight rural...
More »The flawed spin to India's cotton story -Imran Siddiqi
-The Hindu The country’s hybrid seed model for cotton favours seed companies over farmers Genetically Modified (GM) pest resistant Bt cotton hybrids have captured the Indian market since their introduction in 2002. These now cover over 95% of the area under cotton, with the seeds produced entirely by the private sector. India’s cotton production in 2019 is projected as the highest ever: 354 lakh bales. Bt cotton’s role in increasing India’s cotton...
More »Agriculture reforms:: a mantra for equitable growth -Ajay S Shriram
-The Indian Express There are many things that the government can do to improve ease of doing business for kisan and industry. The budget season is upon us, with a flurry of submissions being made to the finance minister from all quarters. The budget itself could result in a fine-tuning of tax rates and allocation adjustments against various expenditure heads/ministries. There are implications from these for all sectors. And no less...
More »Budget 2020-21: Govt to announce Rs 10,000-crore 5-year plan for FPOs -Prabhudatta Mishra
-Financial Express Budget 2020: The direct budgetary aid would be in the form of a grant equivalent to the equity capital of each FPO. Budget 2020: The government will likely announce a five-year scheme in the upcoming Budget, entailing a total support —both budgetary and indirect —of Rs 7,000-10,000 crore to honour its pledge of creating 10,000 farmer producers’ organisations (FPOs) and help boost their agricultural income. The direct budgetary aid would be...
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