Thought for the day
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes,
our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state
of facts and evidence."
-
John Adams (American, 1735-1826)
Word for the day
Chutzpa (n)
Unmitigated effrontery or impudence; gall.
(Source:
Dictionary.com)
Teaser for the day
By blocking business in Rajya Sabha,
is Congress vindicating BJP's behavior during 2004-2014?
2015: Rural income - no material improvement seen
Almost two third of the Indian consumers derive their livelihood
directly from the rural economy, including farming, horticulture, animal
husbandry, cottage industry, forestry, etc. The rural economy directly supports
a large number of industrial enterprise, like crop protection, farm equipment,
transportation, food processing, etc.; besides providing material indirect
support to industries like textile, consumer staples, durable, and services
such as financial services, trade and communication etc.
Anecdotally, we know that the health of rural economy is
important from political and fiscal perspectives also. Since independence,
problems in rural economy have invariably led to fiscal deflections and
political instability.
While the budget allocation to the rural sector has increased
steadily, the investment in the sector has been on the decline in past two
decades.
Source: Planning commission
Consequently, we have not witnessed any sustainable rise in
productivity. The agriculture sector growth had remained anorexic and highly
volatile in past two decades.
The rural income had however shown a tendency to rise in past
one decade due to a variety of factor, especially rise in rural wages, higher
support prices for farm produce, rise in demand and prices for animal produce, and
higher farm subsidies.
Most of these drivers have shown distinct signs of fatigue in
past couple of years. The recent commentary by most consumer product companies
suggests that this fatigue is for real and there are no signs of rejuvenation
as yet.
The government of the day has certainly won the battle at WTO by
ensuring continuing subsidy support to Indian farmers. But it might just have
weakened its position in the war against low productivity and structural
reforms in the farm sector.
Record global food production and the early forecasts of 2015 El
Nino conditions are also not helpful for Indian rural income in 2015. Lower
diesel prices is the just one major positive I can contemplate at this point in
time.
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