-The Hindu Business Line Varied production costs, low-grade produce, limited surplus are key factors Farmers across many States, including Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, are up in arms demanding implementation of the National Commission on Farmers report, which suggested fixing the minimum support price (MSP) for crops 50 per cent above the cost of production. But the MSP of many crops already has a built-in profit margin of 40-50 per cent. So, what is...

-The Hindu Business Line The Government must clear policy bottlenecks for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to meet its ambitious target Amidst the government’s celebrations on completing three years in office, one flagship scheme remains a massive — and challenging — opportunity: Housing for all by 2022. The groundbreaking, affordable housing initiative backing this promise, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), plans to provide homes to 18 million households in urban India...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Amid cow vigilantism, a professor of economics specialising in agrarian issues today wondered aloud whether those demanding a nationwide ban on cow slaughter had thought about its fallout, more so as a beginning had been made with the restrictions on the sale of animals for slaughter at cattle markets. A calculation by professor Vikas Rawal of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University's School...

-VillageSquare.in The problem of male cattle in India, the world’s largest milk-producing country, remains in limbo even as farmers grapple with latest government regulations that severely restrict cattle trade and culling Alpesh Patel, a small farmer in Mogari village of Anand district in Gujarat, owns three crossbreed female cattle and earns supplemental income by selling milk to the nearest dairy co-operative. He strives to keep his herd efficient for milk production by...

-The Hindu Our education system has failed to integrate the rural into the larger political community, the nation Rural Mandsaur, where five persons were killed during a demonstration recently, is a prosperous region of western Madhya Pradesh. More than a decade ago, I had the opportunity of spending two days with the children of a private residential school in Mandsaur. At that time, it was the only English-medium residential school. Its vast and...