-The Indian Express We must recognise and strengthen the diversity, dynamism, enterprise, and resilience of India’s agricultural markets. Last week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman signalled the Union government’s intention to enact a new central law that would override existing state regulations that restrict the farmer from legally selling to anyone other than a buyer licensed by the local Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC). The decision to push for a central law comes...

-Livemint.com * Roughly 100 million migrant workers are directly responsible for 10% of the GDP. Why are they still so invisible? * There has been an unwillingness to collect better data on circular migrants and understand how they affect the economy. This is shocking for a country that runs on migrant labour BRIGHTON/ LONDON: Images of stranded migrants and their long arduous journeys back home will remain seared in our collective memories of...

-Livemint.com * A prolonged lockdown will hurt farmers about to harvest the winter crop and the landless living on daily wages * Continued disruption in the food supply chain will eventually hit consumers if prices vary widely across regions. This uncertainty has also hit 70 mn households in rural India who own small dairies NEW DELHI: Baburao Sanap has no clue how to pull himself out of a big mess —he’s saddled with...

-The Hindu Business Line Encouraging farmers to hedge through futures and increased use of WDRA warehouses are among key options With the nationwide lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19, mandis where farmers sell their harvest have also been closed. Across the country, the harvest of several crops including wheat, mustard, chana and coriander has started and farmers are sitting on truckloads of grains and pulses. In the kharif season, many farmers lost...

-The Financial Express NBFCs are at the forefront of financing many of the affected sectors, notably small road transport operators, taxi aggregators, infrastructure contractors, MSMEs, traders etc. After banks wrote to the regulator asking for moratorium on corporate repayments, their non-banking counterparts have sought a three-month moratorium on equated monthly instalment (EMI) payments by their customers as much of the country goes into lockdown mode. Non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) are also asking...