Opinion: Bornali Bhandari, Laxmi Joshi, Ajaya K Sahu and Shish Pal Bansal. Though the government has been running a Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation since 2014, a comprehensive database of farmers’ usage of farm machinery isn’t available. Ownership of power farm equipment in India is low. The recently released NCAER White Paper on ‘Making India a... Read More
Ensuring food security is critical at the juncture. Providing universal PDS is financially feasible as FCI has more stock than we need Opinion: Bornali bhandari The NCAER Quarterly Review of the Economy June 2020 has estimated that despite the ₹20 trillion Atmanirbhar Bharat package the economy in all likelihood will suffer from negative growth and... Read More
Regulations of industrial municipal inflow in Ganga at the centre of pollution mitigation policies have dissociated rivers from riverine communities. Opinion: Soumi Roy Chowdhury and Nutan Maurya The quality of water in rivers Ganga and Yamuna did not improve despite four decades of pollution-mitigation measures. But they did within 10 days of the nationwide lockdown... Read More
Placing money in the hands of people could help save lives as our economy looks set to shrink this year and possibly the next. Opinion: Sudipto Mundle The coronavirus pandemic reached India late giving us a chance to learn from the experience of countries where it had spread earlier. Drawing on that experience an unprecedented... Read More
India has disappointed itself hugely in the way it handled the migrant labour issue. Why is the government being so tight-fisted in its support for the poor? Opinion: Najeeb Jung and Sudipto Mundle Scenes of migrant labour returning home thirsty hungry and helpless shall be a scar on India forever. Images of men women and... Read More
Reverse migration is one side of the story. Workers with chronic ailments residing within States can also pose a risk Opinion: Palash Baruah and D L Wankhar Labour as a factor of production is a valuable service rendered by a human agent in the production of goods and services. The outcome is generation of wealth... Read More
This sector has developed locally without following global standards. Most players agree that setting standards and their voluntary adoption are the only way for reducing costs Opinion: Sanjib Pohit After the extended lockdown necessitated by the need to contain the spread of the deadly Coronavirus in the country the process of kick-starting the economy has... Read More
Surveys show that the govt’s support schemes do not reach such households. Direct cash transfers and universal PDS will help Opinion: Sumit Mazumdar Santanu Pramanik and Sonalde Desai As details of the stimulus package recently announced by Nirmala Sitharaman begin to emerge it appears that there is a serious mismatch between the areas and groups... Read More
If Bihar’s example is anything to go by simply repealing the APMC Act is not enough to benefit farmers. There is a need to move from notional to functional FPOs Opinion: Sanjib Pohit In the Covid-19 relief package finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has focused on a number of capacity building measures for the agriculture sector—such... Read More
We may have to take recourse to some extraordinary sources to finance the exceptional spending needed to revive growth Policymakers have to decide if they want higher growth along with other pain points or a little less growth but also less pain that would have to be borne later on Opinion: Sudipto Mundle In my... Read More
It’s less egalitarian than TV in delivering education. Net-based learning holds promise provided the digital ecosystem improves Opinion: Bornali Bhandari Charu Jain and Ajaya K Sahu The NCAER Skills Report 2018 discussed the immense potential of online learning albeit as complementary to more traditional methods. In the current situation online education is turning out to... Read More