-TheWire.in The need of the hour is to set up a farmer pay commission, which can fix a minimum assured income of a farmer household. About halfway during the budget speech – while announcing the government’s plans for dealing with India’s agrarian crisis – finance minister Arun Jaitley made a rather bizarre statement. Apparently, according to Jaitley, the Modi government has already provided more than 50% margin over cost of production for...
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Govt keeps stepping in to drive down prices of onions; farmers ask what about us -Parthasarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express Nashik, Maharashtra; In state producing most onions, 60% grown here Nashik: As Santosh Gorade, 38, tends to his 3.5 acres of onion crop, he says he will do this for “maximum six-seven years more”. After that, the farmer from Takli Vinchur village in Nashik plans to get out of farming. “It’s too volatile and market forces are always against us,” he sighs. Under no circumstances, he adds, does he...
More »'Housing for All' Means Nothing for India's Migrant Workers -Sangeeth Sugathan and Nivedita Jayaram
-TheWire.in Earning less than a living wage, migrant workers resort to living in the open, in shared and cramped rented rooms, or within the workplace. The Union Budget, announced on February 1, has committed to provide assistance for building 3.7 million houses in urban areas in 2018-19 under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). However, this does little to resolve India’s urban housing crisis, which affects the poorest and most marginalised populations...
More »From ideas to action
-The Hindu Business Line The National Health Protection Scheme is promising but sketchy The National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), which promises to provide a cover of ?5 lakh each to 10 crore households (50 crore people, or about 40 per cent of the population), marks a big step forward to make secondary and tertiary healthcare affordable to the poor. The initiative is likely to reduce “catastrophic” out-of-pocket expenses, which are estimated to...
More »Sustaining the Amma Unavagams (The Hindu)
-The Hindu Five years after the first canteen came up, the future of the pet project of the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa hangs in balance due to reports of fall in patronage and mounting losses borne by civic bodies. Budgetary support and operational reforms may be necessary for a course correction Sekar. D was observing this newspaper’s team of reporters as he sat cross-legged on the tiled floor. Then, he abandoned his...
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