oppn parties The Next Green Revolution Will Not Happen If Status Quo Is Maintained

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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The Next Green Revolution Will Not Happen If Status Quo Is Maintained

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-12-14 06:21:58

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

The agitating farmers, predominantly from Punjab, must realize that negotiating about anything is not a one-way street. Both parties on the table have to understand the matter at hand and solve the differences in a spirit of give and take. But the farmers have adopted an inflexible stand from the beginning - they will not settle at anything other than a repeal of all three new laws.

The farmers, especially from Punjab, must also realize that the whole country knows how pampered and well-off they are. Despite getting millions of rupees as power and fertilizer subsidy, they still produce paddy in a water-deprived state just to avail of the MSP, in the process playing havoc with the groundwater level in the state and burning stubbles to heavily pollute the air in order to get the land ready for early sowing of wheat. They have resisted all attempts to make them move to growing other crops.

The figures speak for themselves. Only 6 percent of Indian farmers benefit from MSP. Of those who grow paddy, only 12 percent benefit. The state-wise difference is starker. While 95 percent paddy growers benefit from MSP in Punjab, only 3.6 percent do so in UP. Since the APMC procurement system works well in Punjab, the farmers from that state are most agitated over the new laws which they say are designed to benefit corporate interests. But is it really so? There are enough checks in the new laws (and more can be incorporated through negotiations) to let the farmers do the producing while the corporate sector does the processing and value addition, in a win-win situation for both.

The government, while arriving at some sort of a guarantee to let MSP remain for wheat and paddy and relenting on some other things that are troubling the farmers, must remain firm about the new laws. The farm sector needs to be reformed and open and unrestricted marketing through additional channels, reduction of load on government to procure and store grains that are often wasted and introduction of advanced technology and investment in agriculture by the corporate sector will take the sector to new heights. India needs another Green Revolution that is entirely different from the one that happened in the 1960s. That was for food security. This one is needed to make India the world leader in processing agriculture and dairy products.