17 Nov, 2016
Demonetisation to sink co-op banks and farmers?
Engineering a systematic failure of the rural co-operative banking sector would be an unpardonable desecration that seems to be in the making
1 Oct, 2016
Squinted lens for cost: benefit analysis
Where is the rural logic in development planning is a legitimate question when urban infrastructure has money thrown at it while rural India cries for resources.
30 Sep, 2016
Towards an alternative manifesto
Yet another election with the same promises exposes the state of the politicians, surrounded by non-farmer courtiers who cannot even drum up new slogans.
19 Aug, 2016
Whither farm sector consultations?
Policies fail because policy-makers do not know the ground realities and do not consult those that know. The GST is a prime example
1 Aug, 2016
Double or quits
When the proposed beneficiaries of government schemes are never a part of the planning process, how can plans succeed.
18 Jun, 2016
Six years; double income
Prayers were answered as the monsoon made landfall in Kerala, close to where Vasco da Gama landed in 1498. Its impact on political fortunes will be just as significant. This government has promised to double farm incomes in six years and economists argued that this would be impossible because it would entail a 12 per cent annual growth in incomes, something that is unprecedented globally.
16 Jun, 2016
Farmer as the anti-inflation instrument
Food insecurity stems not from insufficient production but from irrational use and inequitable distribution of resources coupled with inaccessibility to food.
1 Jun, 2016
Another bitter harvest
Farmers were awarded a pay cut in a drought year while the talk was about doubling incomes. Even as the country celebrates its control over inflation, the farmer remains in the abyss.
1 Apr, 2016
The ‘double’ trouble
Doubling abysmally low farm incomes is not impossible but only if India takes a sensible policy route, ridding itself of legacy contradictions.
3 Mar, 2016
The book-keeper’s budget
Budget speeches have consistently prioritised farmer prosperity with across-party consensus on the matter. How come the budget makes little difference to farm woes?
