-The Hindu Majority of farmers unaware of MSP programme, say latest available survey data One of the chief aims of The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 is to unshackle farmers from notified markets. Prime Minister narendra modi said that small and marginal farmers “for the first time, have got an alternative to bargain for the price of their produce. The tradition earlier was to sell in mandis.” However, latest...

-ThePrint.in Indian farmers have read the writing on the wall. India’s economists have not. Do Indian farmers understand the agrarian economy better than Ashok Gulati? Ridiculous as it might sound, the answer could well be: yes. Professor Ashok Gulati is the leading agricultural economist in India, and among the scholars I read, consult and respect. He combines solid scholarship with genuine concern for the farmers. He has the spine to stand against governments...

-The Hindu The Code on Wages (yet to be notified) has not succeeded in a consolidation of laws and is a case of tall official claims In the brief monsoon session of Parliament, three new labour codes (The Industrial Relations Code, the Social Security Code and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020) were bulldozed into passing and now await the President’s assent. Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar told the media...

-TheWire.in The most blatant example of ecological illiteracy in the name of ‘self-reliance’ is that of coal mining – a sector which is being opened up in parts of central India which were hitherto off-limits. For a government that is tom-tomming its environmental record across the globe, it is interesting that nature, ecology and environment are almost totally absent from the Indian government’s COVID-19 recovery or stimulus package labelled ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant...

-ThePrint.in Prior to 2014, Indian farmers mostly organised small protests at the state or local level. Modi govt’s inactions on its promises made farmers go national. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign, narendra modi promised to increase farmers’ income. Yet after coming to power, his government did little towards this promise throughout its first tenure. Recently, however, the Modi government passed three “historic” bills purported to alleviate the woes of India’s...