-The Tribune With APMC markets heading towards a collapse, the new set of reforms is aimed at encouraging corporatisation, with big business moving into agriculture, storage and marketing. As the experience of US/Europe shows, when unregulated markets become dominant, small farmers are the first to be pushed out of agriculture. Reiterating what former US Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz (during Ronald Reagan’s rule) had declared: “Get big or get out,” Sonny Perdue, US...

-The Indian Express Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill: The government has sought to project the farm Bill as “creating an ecosystem” where farmers will enjoy the “freedom of choice” to sell to anyone, anywhere in the country. On many occasions, it isn’t the law but what it appears to convey and the context in which it is FRAmed that holds relevance. This certainly is the case with the...

-PTI/ Outlook India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited 58 countries since 2015. Modi's last trip was to Brazil on November 13 last year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited 58 countries since 2015. "The total expenditure on these visits was Rs. 517.82 Crore," Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. According to the details provided by Muraleedharan, the Prime Minister made...

-Press release by Working Peoples' Charter dated 21st September, 2020 Amidst the micro and macro-economic crisis of the last 5 years, the union government has aggressively pushed the agenda of labour law reforms -- purportedly to simplify India’s ‘complex’ labour legislations, improve the business environment, and augment growth and employment. These changes, driven primarily by the business FRAternity, have been aimed at improving India’s ranking in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’...

-Livemint.com * The upcoming kharif harvest season will put the new regime to test and farm unrest may spread beyond Punjab and Haryana if crop prices take a hit NEW DELHI: The new legislations that look to rejig India’s vast and FRAgmented agriculture markets together with amendments to the Essential Commodities Act are significant structural changes brought in by the Narendra Modi government. So far protests by farmers have largely concentrated in...