-The Indian Express The FM’s other ideas for agriculture, especially on Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), which she repeated this year, need to be tested before it becomes a national policy. In her Budget speech, Nirmala Sitharaman spelled out sixteen measures to reboot agriculture and re-affirmed the Modi government’s resolve to double farmers’ incomes by 2022. Agriculture is categorized by her as “Aspirational India”. All these sixteen measures are broadly in the...
More »SEARCH RESULT
MGNREGA allocation slashed by Rs. 9,500 crore in the Union Budget 2020-21, allege Right to Work activists
-Press release by Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee dated 1 February, 2020 The Peoples’ Action for Employment Guarantee is distressed to note the total lack of responsibility and sensitivity accorded by the Union Budget 2020-21 to the rural economy in General, and MGNREGA in particular. It is telling and obviously callous that the Budget estimate for this year at Rs. 61,500 crores is Rs. 9,500 crores less than the revised estimate...
More »Infant deaths: A bleak winter for Kota's children -Mohammed Iqbal
-The Hindu While the children’s families blame the staff of Kota’s J.K. Lon Hospital for negligence, studies show that the government hospital is poorly equipped and understaffed. Mohammed Iqbal reports on the failure of the primary healthcare system which has led to the deaths of more than a hundred children in the last 40 days When four-month-old Tejas had a constant cough, ran a high fever and experienced shortness of breath in...
More »Unhelpful combativeness: On concerns about CAA
-The Hindu PM Modi must address the concerns about the CAA instead of misinterpreting them Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, or CAA, 2019, intended only to grant citizenship to a certain class of people, and not to deny citizenship to anyone is factually accurate. But his extrapolation that hence the Act’s critics are misinformed is unfounded and misleading. The concern expressed by many is not that...
More »A rough patch
-The Indian Express High inflation reduces room for rate cuts. With limited fiscal space, FM must spell out plans to revive growth. Latest inflation data seems to corroborate fears articulated by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in its December meeting when it refrained from cutting the benchmark repo rate. Retail inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), has surged to 7.35 per cent in December 2019, up from 5.54 per...
More »