-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Farmers could get annual income support of Rs 15,000 per hectare if the Niti Aayog’s proposal for an upfront subsidy through direct benefit transfer is accepted, said people with knowledge of the matter. The Aayog has suggested that all subsidies for agriculture, including fertiliser, electricity, crop insurance, irrigation and interest subvention be replaced by income transfer. Telangana and Odisha have adopted income support to help alleviate agrarian...

-The Economic Times The government’s decision to add one more layer of reservations to the existing 50 per cent in government jobs and seats in institutions of higher learning represents political opportunism and amounts to admitting failure to create economic dynamism that would generate quality jobs and meet the aspirations of young India. To create an additional quota of 10 per cent for those with an annual income less than Rs 8...

-The Indian Express To address farmers' woes, we need a multi-pronged strategy of income support, government investment, and institutional innovations, and not a one-size-fits-all approach. The two main policy interventions repeatedly discussed in recent months to tackle farmer distress — loan waivers and minimum support PRIces (MSP) — treat all farmers (large/small, male/female) alike. But farmers are heterogeneous. They differ especially by income, land owned and gender. And farmer dissatisfaction is...

-The Pioneer Government policies for the pulses sector have helped overcome multiple challenges. Effective implementation of an integrated module can solve most farm problems Agricultural transformation is high on everybody’s agenda today. Various stakeholders, including experts, policy-makers and political executives, have expressed their views on how to move forward with agricultural policies so that our farmers can prosper. However, performance of policies and strategies that are already in their implementation stage will...

-The Indian Express The existing MSP-based procurement system is fiscally unsustainable. The time has come to consider market intelligence-based regulation of crop production Farmers are always in distress when PRIces of their produce are subdued. The response of governments, obviously prompted by political pressures, has been to sharply hike minimum support PRIces (MSP) of crops or declare loan waivers. Thus, the current government at the Centre has significantly raised the MSPs of...