-The Telegraph The tearing hurry with which agriculture market reforms have been pushed through, without even consulting farmers, has resulted in huge farm protests in Punjab and Haryana At a time when I see euphoria among mainstream economists over the new set of agricultural reforms, media reports say that the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices has observed that only 12 per cent of India’s paddy cultivators were able to sell their...

-TheIndiaForum.in The rules of the game in markets have changed dramatically. But there are problems with the fundamental premise of the approach, there are doubts about the future of state intervention & there are major lacunae in the bills, all making the outcome uncertain. On 5 June 2020, amidst growing concern over the seismic collapse of the economy and the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government of India promulgated three ordinances...

-The Indian Express The idea of a Minimum Support Price for crops came first from a visiting US soil scientist and fertiliser expert The institution of ‘mandis’ is as old as markets where wholesale trading in primary produce has been taking place since time immemorial. APMCs or Agricultural Produce Market Committees are of more recent vintage and the creation of Sir Chhotu Ram. In 1939, the legendary farmer leader, as Development Minister in...

-Livemint.com * Mint spoke with farmers in different states and reports their views on the new laws that seek to liberalize India’s agriculture markets In a historic rejig, the government has enacted a new set of laws which seeks to liberalize farm trade, give freedom to farmers to sell their produce outside regulated mandis and enter into contracts with buyers at a pre-agreed price, in the hope that free markets will help...

-The Tribune For Punjab and Haryana, it is also about the fiscal relationship with the Centre The situation following the enactment of the three ordinances passed by the Centre has created a political problem as well as somewhat of a dilemma for many economists. There is the fairly common assumption by many economists that free functioning of markets is a more efficient way of letting prices and choices function than relying too...