-The Times of India blog A reply by Water Resources minister Uma Bharti to a Lok Sabha question on groundwater depletion foregrounds tough trade-offs facing India’s policymakers. According to Bharti, an assessment of groundwater resources and usage showed that 16% of 6,584 assessment units in India are “overexploited.” A table which accompanies her reply provides state-wise data. Here, Punjab stands out for the magnitude of overexploitation. If 16% of assessed units in India...
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Foodgrain output rose 5 times in 60 years but farmers are still diStressed -Chaitanya Mallapur
-Business Standard/ India Spend 52% of India's agricultural households are indebted; with an average outstanding loan of Rs 47,000 India’s foodgrain production rose five times over six decades, according to 2016 government data, the latest available. But with the average Indian farm half as large as it used to be 50 years ago and yields among the lowest in developing economies, both the agriculture sector and farmers have been driven to the...
More »Why your arhar dal cravings just may need to be capped, but not soon -Nanda Kasabe
-The Financial Express Pune: While the sowing area of pulses is up 3.5% across the country, it has gone down by 19.22 % for arhar (tur) , according to latest estimates by the government. The data indicates sowing area of 93.36 lakh hectares for pulses against 90.30 lakh hectares same time last year. For arhar , the area is 29.32 lakh hectares compared to 36.30 lakh hectares last year. Tur sowing...
More »India's children need a better deal -V Ramani
-The Indian Express For a country that aims to be a regional power, the data on child nutrition confirms that the situation is abysmal. Save for Bihar, six of the seven states with the highest incidence of stunting, for example, are ruled by the BJP or the BJP and its allies – Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bihar. After an agonising wait of over ten years, the...
More »Farmers need remunerative prices, not debt waiver, to end rural diStress -TK Arun
-The Economic Times Farmers are agitated. Loan waivers have not stemmed protests or farmer suicides. This is a multidimensional problem and also a huge political opportunity for parties that can think constructively. Waiving loans is bad policy. It adds to the fiscal Stress of states, straining under the electricity utility debt they have taken over. The states would undo the Centre’s hard-wrought fiscal discipline, scaring rating agencies. Waived loans bring little benefit to...
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