-The Indian Express In 2017, then Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojna, a farm loan waiver of Rs 35,000 crore for 89 lakh farmers. Mumbai: DESPITE various farmer welfare schemes, including a loan waiver in 2017, Maharashtra recorded 3,927 farmers’ suicide in 2019 — the highest in the country, which registered a total of 10,281 suicides in the farm sector last year, according to data...

-Livemint.com Government data claims that more than 10 million people went home after the lockdown, although experts and civil society groups say the number is much larger. Migrants who went home during the lockdown saw their incomes drop by as much as 94% and an overwhelming majority of them are ready to return to the cities, a survey by a team of retired Government officers and academics found. The survey on covid’s impact...

-Vikalp.ind.in While the country is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy is in doldrums, the central Government, instead of taking measures to provide immediate relief to the distressed population, has used the opportunity to introduce sweeping changes in the regulatory framework of the agricultural marketing system of the country. On June 3, 2020, the Cabinet approved three ordinances. These ordinances were converted into Acts after they were passed, under...

-Economic and Political Weekly Agricultural market reforms recently enacted by the National Democratic Alliance Government reflect the Bharatiya Janata Party’s determination to introduce agrobusinesses into agriculture and push further its agenda of centralisation of economic power and decision-making. The opposition to the reforms by farmers, many state Governments, and regional political formations poses the most formidable challenge, so far, to this Government. The contesting claims have missed the dimension of the...

-Economic and Political Weekly In recent years, the Indian official data has been challenged for many reasons, most of them arising out of the perception that the Government is reluctant to release unfavourable data. These doubts have been exacerbated by the controversy posed by the debate around Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Population Register, and National Register of Citizens and the weakening of established institutions like the National Statistical Commission. The COVID-19...