-Financial Express If the government implements the assured minimum support price at one and a half times the production cost, as promised, it would jack up consumer prices of jowar and distort the market dynamics of the “poor man’s cereal”. Besides, the measure would also dampen exports, analysts warn. At 150% of the cost (A2+FL), the MSP for jowar for the next season could be at least 37% higher than the...

-Newsclick.in The Finance Minister of Uttar Pradesh Rajesh Agarwal presented the Budget for financial year 2018-19 on February 16. The State government allocated Rs. 63,223 crores for overall Education sector which is an increase of 10.90% as compared to 2017-18 in which Rs. 56,993 crores were allocated. Out of this amount, Rs. 50,142 crore will be spent on Primary Education, Rs. 9,387 crore on secondary education and Rs. 2,656 on higher education....

-Livemint.com From 14 March the farmer organisations will carry out a public consultation and audit of the MSP system in mandis in eight states and raise the demand to make MSPs a legal entitlement for farmers New Delhi: Holding the government accountable for its budget promise of ensuring minimum support prices (MSP) to farmers, a host of farmer organisations on Wednesday flagged that the winter harvest of gram, lentils and mustard, which...

-The Hindu Malnutrition is a complex problem and results from not getting enough food to not getting the right kind of food, says the United Nations WFP (India) Country Director Even with the world's largest subsidised food distribution systems serving 65 million poor families across the country, India continues to be home to a quarter of all malnourished people worldwide. In view of the incredible challenge of improving nutrition for all people...

-Livemint.com Linking MSPs to a multiple of costs and ignoring other dynamics, such as demand and global prices, risks creating distortions and disincentivizing productivity Government policymaking seems to be making a volte-face from supporting consumers (by keeping food inflation low), to supporting producers (by raising food prices). In the 2018-19 Union budget, the government “decided to keep minimum support prices (MSP) for all unannounced crops of kharif at least at one-and-a-half times of...