“The 20-lakh crore package (announced by the Centre) has not provided any direct assistance to the States whereas it is the States which are fighting the pandemic at the ground level. More than 90 per cent of the package is in the form of loan to industries and businesses and not as grants………. The minimum support price ceiling enhancement and inclusion of more crops in the MSP domain are vital for agriculture sector.”
– Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan
“The corona lockdown has flattened the wrong curve – not the infection curve but the GDP curve.”
– Rajiv Bajaj, Industrialist, Mumbai
“the objective of mitigating the burden of debt servicing brought about by distruptions on account of the Covid – 19 pandemic and to ensure the continuity of viable businesses. Therefore, the regulatory package is, in its essence, in the nature of a moratorium/deferment and cannot be considered to be a waiver.”
– Reserve Bank of India
Build consensus on Farm Reforms. These (two Ordinances) reforms will not, by themselves, quite make milk and honey flow in rural India and will need be supplemented with reforms to input pricing and significant public investment in farm infrastructure and its linkage to marketing. The Central government must drop arbitrary powers in the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) amendment….. while inter-state commerce is a subject in the Union list, intra-state trade lies within the ambit of the State government. Since the States stand to lose considerable sums of mandi tax derived from their Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Acts, they are guaranteed to protest cutting across political parties. Their concerns would have to be addressed.
– The Economic Times
Promulgating Ordinances either by Central or State government is not the proper mode of democratic governance; it is more meaningless during the lockdown times of Corona pandemic. Any change or reform measure has to be brought with its due placement and subjection to deliberations in the legislative floors that are locked at present during the lockdown. Permanency cannot be decided and effected while deviation from the normalcy endures.
– The Modern Rationalist
