Daily Analysis of 'The Hindu' - 4th June, 2020 | Additional Study Material for UPSC PDF Download

 Page 1


MSP for Coarse (ToI)
Time to discontinue free power for farmers
Seven to eleven
India’s Parliament is missing in action
In Himalayan staredown, the dilemmas for Delhi
Curves and recoveries
Page 2


MSP for Coarse (ToI)
Time to discontinue free power for farmers
Seven to eleven
India’s Parliament is missing in action
In Himalayan staredown, the dilemmas for Delhi
Curves and recoveries
MSP for Coarse
?Revised minimum support prices for kharif crops.
?Preference towards coarse cereals like bajra, ragi,
maize and jowar.
?Bajra, ragi, maize and jowar have earned hikes per
quintal of Rs 150, 145, 90 and 70 respectively against
just Rs 53 for paddy.
?Paddy is water guzzling.
?Massive groundwater exploitation and diversion of
river water for irrigation is proving unsustainable.
?Large parts of India are facing desertification.
Page 3


MSP for Coarse (ToI)
Time to discontinue free power for farmers
Seven to eleven
India’s Parliament is missing in action
In Himalayan staredown, the dilemmas for Delhi
Curves and recoveries
MSP for Coarse
?Revised minimum support prices for kharif crops.
?Preference towards coarse cereals like bajra, ragi,
maize and jowar.
?Bajra, ragi, maize and jowar have earned hikes per
quintal of Rs 150, 145, 90 and 70 respectively against
just Rs 53 for paddy.
?Paddy is water guzzling.
?Massive groundwater exploitation and diversion of
river water for irrigation is proving unsustainable.
?Large parts of India are facing desertification.
?Coarse cereals are also highly nutritious.
?A transition to short duration millets with less water
requirement and tolerance to arid climates is long
overdue.
?Pulses and oilseeds have also received handsome MSP
increases, which will favour crop diversification.
?Various subsidies, including MSPs, have been blamed for
spurt of paddy cultivation in water-stressed regions.
?So the tweaking of MSPs to disincentivise paddy without
the political will to completely replace market distorting
sops with income support schemes for farmers represents
some rationalisation, even if it falls short of course
correction.
Page 4


MSP for Coarse (ToI)
Time to discontinue free power for farmers
Seven to eleven
India’s Parliament is missing in action
In Himalayan staredown, the dilemmas for Delhi
Curves and recoveries
MSP for Coarse
?Revised minimum support prices for kharif crops.
?Preference towards coarse cereals like bajra, ragi,
maize and jowar.
?Bajra, ragi, maize and jowar have earned hikes per
quintal of Rs 150, 145, 90 and 70 respectively against
just Rs 53 for paddy.
?Paddy is water guzzling.
?Massive groundwater exploitation and diversion of
river water for irrigation is proving unsustainable.
?Large parts of India are facing desertification.
?Coarse cereals are also highly nutritious.
?A transition to short duration millets with less water
requirement and tolerance to arid climates is long
overdue.
?Pulses and oilseeds have also received handsome MSP
increases, which will favour crop diversification.
?Various subsidies, including MSPs, have been blamed for
spurt of paddy cultivation in water-stressed regions.
?So the tweaking of MSPs to disincentivise paddy without
the political will to completely replace market distorting
sops with income support schemes for farmers represents
some rationalisation, even if it falls short of course
correction.
?Punjab and Haryana were traditional millet
growing regions before the Green Revolution and
subsidies helped rice and wheat displace them.
?A return to millets, maize, pulses and oilseeds
would truly be nature’ s call in tod ay’ s
environmentally stressed circumstances.
?But state governments need more convincing.
?Besides rejecting the modest paddy MSP hike,
Punjab has said it would rather forego Centre’ s
fiscal deficit enhancement offer in lieu of power
sector reforms than withdraw free power to
farmers.
Page 5


MSP for Coarse (ToI)
Time to discontinue free power for farmers
Seven to eleven
India’s Parliament is missing in action
In Himalayan staredown, the dilemmas for Delhi
Curves and recoveries
MSP for Coarse
?Revised minimum support prices for kharif crops.
?Preference towards coarse cereals like bajra, ragi,
maize and jowar.
?Bajra, ragi, maize and jowar have earned hikes per
quintal of Rs 150, 145, 90 and 70 respectively against
just Rs 53 for paddy.
?Paddy is water guzzling.
?Massive groundwater exploitation and diversion of
river water for irrigation is proving unsustainable.
?Large parts of India are facing desertification.
?Coarse cereals are also highly nutritious.
?A transition to short duration millets with less water
requirement and tolerance to arid climates is long
overdue.
?Pulses and oilseeds have also received handsome MSP
increases, which will favour crop diversification.
?Various subsidies, including MSPs, have been blamed for
spurt of paddy cultivation in water-stressed regions.
?So the tweaking of MSPs to disincentivise paddy without
the political will to completely replace market distorting
sops with income support schemes for farmers represents
some rationalisation, even if it falls short of course
correction.
?Punjab and Haryana were traditional millet
growing regions before the Green Revolution and
subsidies helped rice and wheat displace them.
?A return to millets, maize, pulses and oilseeds
would truly be nature’ s call in tod ay’ s
environmentally stressed circumstances.
?But state governments need more convincing.
?Besides rejecting the modest paddy MSP hike,
Punjab has said it would rather forego Centre’ s
fiscal deficit enhancement offer in lieu of power
sector reforms than withdraw free power to
farmers.
Time to discontinue free power for farmers
?Free power supply scheme for farmers.
?It is a major vote-catching policy measure.
?Centre has prescribed that the free power supply
scheme should be replaced with the direct benefits
transfer (DBT) as a condition to allow States to
increase their borrowing limit.
?Deadline for implementation: By December this
year, the DBT should be introduced at least in one
district of a State and from the next financial year, a
full roll-out should be made.