-The Indian Express In the initial years, APMC Acts helped remove malpractices and freed the farmers from the exploitative power of middlemen and mercantile capital, writes Ramesh Chand In the context of the ongoing farmer protests in some parts of the country, Ramesh Chand, a member of Niti Aayog, explains the reason why the government had to introduce changes. “The debate on the Farmers’ Produce Trading and Commerce Act 2020 (FPTC Act) has...

-The Indian Express In back-to-back moves aimed at controlling onion prices, the government has relaxed import norms and now reintroduced stock limits. Why have prices been rising, and how far can these moves check the rise? With less than a week to go for the Bihar elections, the Centre on Friday reintroduced the stock limit on onions — a move aimed at controlling rising prices, which crossed Rs 80 per kg in...

-Newsclick.in In 2006, chief minister Nitish Kumar scrapped the APMC Act in Bihar and the destructive effects can be seen in the seething anger amongst farmers. What the Narendra Modi government recently did through passing laws to deregulate agricultural trade, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had accomplished 14 years ago, in 2006. Soon after becoming chief minister in alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he scrapped Bihar’s Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC)...

-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...

-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...