-Down to Earth At a time when farmers strive to get the right price for crops, more money in their hands can help reignite the country's economy In 2019, three weeks after the kharif harvesting season began, reports emerged that farmers are selling their produce at a price way below the minimum support price (MSP) announced by the government. Except for a few crops like paddy and maize, market prices for most...
More »SEARCH RESULT
PM Kisan: Tenant farmers, tillers left high and dry -Siraj Hussain
-The Hindu Business Line The PM-Kisan as a tool to prop up sagging rural demand, recording of tenancy to help the real cultivators and streamlining of agricultural subsidies could be three important themes for Indian Agriculture in 2020. With the defeat in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in December 2018, the Government realised that to win rural votes in the General Elections in May 2019, it needed to...
More »The cost of food
-The Indian Express Return of food inflation may not allow RBI to further slash interest rates but opens up room for delayed reform Retail food inflation crossing 10 per cent, the first time in nearly six years, isn’t good news for an economy already mired in a deep slowdown. The suddenness of the increase (from under 3 per cent in August to 10 per cent-plus in November) and the fact that the...
More »In the farmer's name -Ajay Vir Jakhar
-The Indian Express Farmer unions need to expand the scope of their advocacy. Every day, a gold miner in Russia leaves a mine with a wheelbarrow full of sand. Every day, the guard thoroughly checks the sand. On his retirement day, the guard asks the worker, “I know you have been stealing something, but can’t figure out what it is”. The worker whispers back, “I wasn’t hiding anything in the sand,...
More »Mind the statistics gap -C Rangarajan & S Mahendra Dev
-The Indian Express Growing divergence between consumption expenditure estimates from NSO surveys and GDP data is too big to be pushed under the carpet Recently, we had expressed concerns that with the GDP growth rate falling in the post 2011-12 period, the decline in the poverty ratio would be slow. During 2011-12 to 2018-19, both GDP and agriculture growth were lower than in the earlier period. The terms of trade were not...
More »