Opinions

To keep agricultural markets operational while maintaining the norms of social distancing, FPOs can play a crucial role. These should be empowered with all support to ensure smooth operations of agricultural supply chains avoiding distressed sales during the lockdown period.

The employment conditions may worsen as a number of businesses will be permanently affected due to COVID-19 lockdown. To avoid an increase in unemployment, policies should be prioritised towards the rural economy.

At a time when the Rabi crop is ready for harvest and the Kharif crop will be sown, quick and effective policy responses are required.

Few years ago, a friend of mine, Brazilian, remarked – “Indian roads are the closest to anarchy that I have ever felt”. Incidentally, last month, the famous comic from US, Gabriel Iglesias aka Fluffy after his visit to India, made a 25-minute-long stand-up about his experience on the same issue.

India, once “vilified as the nation with the biggest population of open defecators in the world” declared it became open defecation free (ODF) in October 2019. This was the result of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) or Clean India Mission.

Substantial reduction in the education budget over the last five years has reduced allocations for scholarships given to students from marginalised communities, affecting their ability to stay in the education system, shows an analysis of government data between 2015-16 and 2019-20.

Delhi is one of the biggest and fastest growing metropolises, not just in India but in the world. As Delhi approaches its mammoth task of building the Master Plan 2041, we recognize that one of the major challenges before the planners continues to be provision of affordable housing.

Public goods and services are characterised by non-rivalry in consumption and non-excludability in provision. Hence, it is very difficult to ascertain the effectiveness of public provisioning using any tool or method, which can measure effectiveness of public expenditure.

Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, announced the formation of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DDCMC), termed as “DISHA” in July 2016.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) aims to provide secure livelihood opportunities to the rural population of the country by generating 100 days of employment to each household in every financial year.