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Routes to Secure Farmer Incomes
- Published on 21 February 2018
The blueprint for Doubling Farmers' Income should incorporate fully at least one of the four ways to enhance farmers' income security. The four options are 1) universal basic income for farmers; Statutory enforceable minimum support prices (MSPs) for all farm produce including fish;3)Transformation of all direct and indirect farm subsidies into direct cash transfers (DCT) into bank accounts of farm families farm households; and 4) contract farming where the contracting entity, be it public or private sector company, supplies quality inputs and agrees to buy entire the produce at a guaranteed price.
Time to Shift Focus from Acronyms to gaps in Performance
- Published on 20 February 2018
Would acronyms-laden growth model of Modi Government deliver magic during the forthcoming elections to certain state assemblies and the Lok Sabha?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to bank on new acronyms, renaming and repackaging of schemes. The other day he spun acronym ‘TOP’ at a BJP rally in Karnataka to woo distressed farmers.
Mr Modi reportedly said: “If you go to any corner of India, you will find three vegetables — tomato, onion and potato. That is why I call it top priority — the T of tomato, the O of Onion and the P of potato — TOP priority. Keeping these farmers in my mind, we announced Operation Greens in the Budget. Like how Amul is a model in the milk sector for enhancing the income of dairy farmers, Operation Greens will assure incomes for tomato, onion, potato… and all vegetable farmers.”
Any student of agriculture would tell you that all policy and institutional elements of TOP and Operation Greens already exist. There is nothing new in them.
On the contrary, Modi Government’s commitment to these elements has been either lacking or shrinking right from the very first year of its tenure. This is one of the main causes of worsening agrarian distress.
‘TOP’ and ‘Operation Greens’ need to be studied with clinical precision to prove that the duo is nothing but yet another Jumla (empty promise). To put bluntly, duo is nothing but yet another attempt to fool the farmers.
To arrive at the jumla conclusion, we have to start with promises made by BJP in its 2014 Lok Sabha Manifesto and how they have been acted upon so far.
Revisit Population-Food-Jobs Matrix to Overcome Malthusian Pangs
- Published on 02 February 2018
(Image Courtesy: Dance of Death - World Digital Library)
India’s annual Economic Survey (ES) sees the “ghost of Malthus” on the horizon. This should alarm dream merchants who have been fooling the masses on their way to power by flaunting elusive demographic dividend.
With full respect to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor, Dr. Manmohan Singh, this column deplores their obsession for demographic dividend. Both have failed to make any significant dent in unemployment and underemployment.
We all have to actually work for saving India from impending demographic disaster against backdrop of triple challenge. It comprises: 1) booming population, 2) agrarian crisis marked by stagnant yields, farmers’ unrest & climate change and 3) ubiquitous spread of automation with the near-arrival of driverless cars and unmanned container ships.
Citizens should thus view ES as the trigger to set a national agenda on India’s Population Bomb, Resources Crunch, Climate Change and Malthus.
Mind you, ES is not the sole official document to voice worry over India’s long-term prospects. The country’s development, when assessed on basis of per capita availability of resources, has been virtually offset by burgeoning population.
Cacophony Against Amending Constitution is Music for the Ignorant
- Published on 20 January 2018
Indian Constitution (Image Courtesy: World Digital Library)
“Look at our new constitution drafted by Dr. Ambedkar. There is nothing new in it. He has mostly copied out either the Government of India Act of 1935 or, as admitted by himself, has drawn from the constitutions of other countries. A bit from here and a bit from there - it is a Pandora’s Box…. My biggest complaint on this account is that if for the purpose of drafting a constitution he had to copy out the constitutions of other countries, then why did he not embody the latest and the best constitution?....He has retained all the bad points that he could lay his hands upon”.
Thank God. This was not an outburst from Union Minister of State for Employment and Skill Development Anant kumar Hegde. He was last month hounded out by self-styled sentinels of democracy. Mr. Hegde was forced to apologize in Parliament for hinting at a rally that BJP-led NDA Government would amend the Constitution.
The quoted harsh words were uttered by Maulana Hasrat Mohani in the Constituent Assembly (CA) on 4th November 1948. And this was neither an isolated attack on the drafted constitution nor on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the Chief architect of the Constitution and Messiah of Dalits.
Certain other CA members too picked holes in the Draft. A few even questioned the competence and legitimacy of non-elected CA to frame a constitution, representing ostensibly as the will of the people.
Before discussing the need of framing a new Constitution, one more quote from Constituent Assembly Debates (CAD) would make discourse meaningful.