In the financial year 2017-18 when tractor sales touched new heights, it was said by many of the NDA (viz. National Democratic Alliance) government supporters that rural demand has revived on account of adequate monsoon rainfall and higher minimum support prices for crops. Many economists and newspaper columnists also denied the existence of any rural distress. An alternative perspective, however, was also presented by rural economists like Dr. Himanshu who teaches...
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Agri families borrow more, eat less to cope with kin's suicide: study -Sayantan Bera
-Livemint.com * Average income of farm suicide families was just Rs.3,523 per month in 2016-17, below Rs.4,561 estimated by NSSO: study * The study found that 92% of farm suicide families were not enrolled under the centre’s flagship crop insurance scheme NEW DELHI: Agricultural households are trying to cope with the suicide of an earning member of the family by borrowing more, skimping on food and even taking recourse to bonded labour, a...
More »Budget 2019: A pro-farmer slant but just a field of dreams -Sayantan Bera
-Livemint.com * FM vows to invest widely in agriculture infrastructure, but offers little to revive rural income and demand * In terms of new schemes, the budget announced Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana for the fisheries sector and another to boost traditional industries In March 2018, Rakesh Sangwan, 27, a farmer in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri, stopped watering his tomato plants. The crop slowly withered away and, subsequently, it was mowed down by a...
More »The many hues of inequality in India -T Haque & D Narasimha Reddy
-The Hindu Business Line There has been a spike in income inequality in the post reforms period with wealth concentrated at the top deciles India has somehow nurtured a widely shared impression that it has a well established statistical system with reliable databases compiled through effective methods of data collection through its network of central agencies and periodic nation-wide surveys. However, India is one of the very few countries which does not...
More »To transform the agrarian sector, a focus on deep-rooted structural issues is needed
-The Telegraph The BJP government must realize that it cannot and should not be done by income transfers alone A new scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, was announced in the interim Union budget presented earlier this year. It was stated that under this scheme farmers holding up to two hectares of land would be entitled to Rs 6,000 every year, to be paid from the budget in three equal instalments....
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