-The Indian Express Rural crisis needs nuanced interventions, not tall promises in party manifestos Farmers were sold a dream in 2014 that everything was going to change. But now they have compelling reasons to feel they were deceived. Party manifestos indicate what the politicians want us to believe. After elections, winners get either selective amnesia (Rs 15 lakh in each bank account), re-interpret promises (MSP at C2+50 per cent), continue to...

-Financial Express If ever there was a beautiful word in Indian polity, it shall be none other than ‘poverty’. Existence of poverty, the necessary evil, ensured the Congress and various regional parties win elections after elections through rhetoric, albeit repeatedly but in different forms, and finding a page on their election manifestos. Did any of the ideologically opposite previous dispensations ever knocked the door of the poor man for eliminating the...

-Newsclick.in In an interview, the ‘father’ of India’s Green Revolution, says while technology is necessary, policies on procurement and public distribution are far more important in making agriculture economically viable and sustainable in the country. No one has played a more instrumental role in India’s self-sufficiency in food production than Dr MS Swaminathan — world-renowned agricultural scientist, known as the ‘Father of Green Revolution in India’. After getting a PhD from Cambridge...

-Newsclick.in NYAY amounts to a largesse by the government, an act of charity towards the bottom quintile, not the institution of a universal economic right to decent living. My attitude to the NYAY scheme of the Congress is similar to my attitude to a benevolent monarchy. While a benevolent monarchy is better than a tyrannical one, any monarchy is repugnant compared to a republic. Likewise compared to the current neo-liberal regime any...

-The Hindu Governments can provide direct cash transfers while creating conditions for employment With the Congress promising through the Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) scheme ?6,000 every month to the poorest 20% of households if voted to power, Mahendra Dev and Pronab Sen talk of the importance and problems of direct cash transfers. Providing social protection is important even as governments try to create conditions for income-generating activities, they say in a discussion...