Indian Express

It’s almost sardonic that when you type “agrarian” in Google, it invariably suggests “crisis” as the following word. In 2019, the Indian farm sector grew minus 0.1% year-on-year in January-March and 2% and 2.1% in the next two quarters. A host of reasons have affected the sector’s growth, from a slump in rural demand and liquidity crunch (especially post the collapse of IL&FS) to the overall slowdown in the economy, slump in rural demand and liquidity crunch.

Energy ET

State-owned power giant NTPC has decided to procure and use six million tonnes of agro residue-based pellets to co-fire its power plants along with coal in 2020, in its endeavour towards more sustainable power generation. Currently, NTPC is using agro residue-based pellets at its Dadri thermal power plant. In 2020, the company would use these pellets, made out of stubble and husk, in its 21 thermal coal-fired power plants across the country.

Hindustan Times

The Modi government’s cash-for-farmers programme has been able to benefit only half of the 140 million farmers targeted in 2019-20 due to implementation hurdles, according to figures presented in Parliament. The next disbursal, now due, is likely to leave out those who have not been able to link their bank accounts with Aadhaar, the universal 12-digit biometric identity number.

Tribune India

At a time when agrarian distress is quite pronounced, and while India ranks 102 among 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index-2019, the country’s granaries are overflowing. Against a surplus of 73.1 million tonnes of wheat and rice which was stacked with the government in July 2019, the food stocks are projected to swell by another 10 million tonnes or so to reach a record 84.7 million tonnes in July 2020.