Farmers Suicide – Social and Economic Implications …by Arvind Swami
Agriculture is the lifeline of the Indian economy. Farmers are the backbone to realize the full potential of the agricultural sector and in its contribution to the Indian economy. However, the contribution of the agricultural sector to the economy is decreasing and the number of people employed here is reducing. Due to decreasing productivity and income realization, farmers who are primarily dependent on it are resorting to suicides. These incidents are having severe social and economic ramifications.
Socially, it is leading to impoverishment and reduction of the social status of the farmer’s family. It also hampers the human development of the younger generation in their families. Incidents like these have influenced many other farmers to adopt it and are hampering the younger generations to move towards agriculture. Village harmony also gets impacted due to these unforeseen incidents.
Economically, the farmer’s family enters the vicious cycle of poverty. Agriculture contributing nearly 15% of GDP in India and facing a decreasing trend may not show signs of progress. Further industries that depend on the agriculture sector for raw materials may see a decline that might have an impact finally on employment generation and national development.
The government of India has been implementing various programs like PM-KISAN, PM-AASHA, PMKVY; etc intending to double farmer’s income by 2022. However, much more focus and care should be taken to address their grievances rather than resorting to loan waivers to appease them in the short term. In this regard, income support through PM-KISAN is a step in the right direction. Thus, with more concerted efforts farmer’s suicides can be addressed and usher their energy to support national development.
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Tackling Fake News. …by Anand Alok
The emergence of social media coupled with the right to freedom of speech under Art 19 A of the Indian constitution has created a new issue before the nation, and the issue is all about fake news causing a social rift and deaths of someone innocent. One the one hand, Social Media such as Whatsapp, Facebook, etc. play a vital role in uniting people while on the other hand, they become the sole causes to incite people and set them to quarrel in a wide area in a very short span of time.
Many are in the habit of sharing some provoking news, audio and video clippings without realizing the consequences of it. It, thus, results in mob-lynching and mob-harassment of someone innocent. People involving in such activities must be traced out and cracked down on. In addition, the filtration system of fake news must be made strong. The Administration must make people beware of fake news. People must not handle any issue themselves breaching the laws.
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“Contribution of Cashless Economy in India” …by Sangeeta Singh
India is the second-largest populated country next to China and is the fourth-largest economy with a sum total of 2.7 trillion US dollars in the world. With the growing population and economy every year, the formal and informal payments and transactions that are being done by the people are also increasing rapidly. India has recently adopted the path called Digital India to make the economy cashless.
Cashless economy eases people by relieving them from the burden of carrying cash with them everywhere. It saves time and energy of the people not by making them wait at ATMs. It has lessened the burden of banks even on behalf of their customers.
Cashless payments help people do transactions even in remote and inaccessible places with no ATMs or Business Correspondents. It also comes in handy when we are short of money to make a payment. E-Commerce sites like Amazon, Flipkart which support cashless payments help people get them what they want right to their homes. Also, the charges associated with online payments help banks generate additional income. The Government’s revenue has also increased manifold in the form of GST.
The cashless mode of our economy thus makes huge contributions to our country. It is helping the economy to prosper fast.
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Is eCommerce destroying the brick and mortar retail stores? …..…By Rahul Aggarwal
In the modern globalized world, the whole world is unified in all aspects. Be it from trade perspective, cultural perspective, education perspective and so on. With the rapid advancement of the digital technology, the tech giants companies are entering into e – commerce businesses. The selling of products through the medium of platform online is called as e commerce business. The well known e – commerce companies are Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal etc.
These e-commerce companies possess cutting edge technologies. These helped them to capture vast geographical extent. In India, where more than 60% of the population is online, these companies took a tremendous benefits by giving customers deep discounts, unbeatable offers, delivering the products at their doorsteps and much more. On the other hand, to compete them, the brick and mortar retail stores, due to their limited resources, unable to compete. The reasons might be their lack of adaptation to the changing world scenario, lack of outreach to customers etc.
But, to sustain a healthy competitive environment, level playing field is necessary. Here small retail stores should come up with innovative offers to attract the customers. They can take advantage of modern technology and tie them with big giants companies to sold their products. This will not only increase their productivity but also the GDP of the nation. For example : on festive occasions, festive treats given by the companies generates a huge profits to them as well as sellers.
But, alone, retail outlets can’t alone do anything. The government should come forward to protect small businesses. They can monitor unfair activities which are used by companies and impose fine on them. There should be strict and effective implementation of e – commerce bill 2019. Competition Commission of India should make regulatory guidelines for boosting healthy competitive environment. Government e -marketplace, Flipkart Samarth scheme etc are welcome initiatives to encourage people to sell their products.
In rapidly changing world, the need of hour is that all should change themselves as per time demand. This would be win- win situation for all.
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Farmers suicide- social and economic implications …by Chaitanya
Agriculture is the lifeline of Indian economy. Farmers are backbone to realize the full potential of agricultural sector and in its contribution to Indian economy. However, the contribution of agricultural sector to economy is decreasing and the number of people employed here are reducing. Due to decreasing productivity and income realization, farmers who are primarily dependent on it are resorting to suicides. These incidents are having severe social and economic ramifications.
Socially, it is leading to impoverishment and reduction of social status of farmers family. It also hampers the human development of younger generation in their family. Incidents like these have influenced many other farmers to adopt it and is hampering the younger generations to move towards agriculture. Village harmony also gets impacted due to these unforseen incidents.
Economically, farmers family enters the vicious cycle of poverty. Agriculture contributing nearly 15% of GDP in India and facing a decreasing trend may not show signs of progress. Further industries which depend on agriculture sector for rawmaterial may see a decline which might have an impact finally on employment generation and national development.
Goverment of India has been implementing various programmes like PM-KISAN, PM-AASHA, PMKVY; etc with an aim to double farmers income by 2022. However, much more focus and care should be taken to address their greivences rather than resorting to loan waivers to appease them in short term. In this regard, income support through PM-KISAN is a step in right direction. Thus, with more concerted efforts farmers suicides can be addressed and usher their energy to support national development.
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PSU Bank Mergers …by Prithvi Raman Mehta
Recently the incumbent Finance Minister announced the merger of 10 public sector banks into 4. In the present times of growing uncertainty looming around the economy and banking sector, It has almost become quintessential for the government to take certain steps in the wake of economic slowdown with mergers being one of them.
The proposed mergers will help newly merged banks to improve efficiency by reducing operational costs due to shared overlapping networks. Financial inclusion will get a boost as there will be more rural penetration providing banking services to the unbanked. Banks will also be able to have a strong presence in the domestic market as well as expand their business globally. Banks will become self-sufficient as larger banks will be able to raise resources from market rather than relying on state exchequer. With the number of PSBs coming down, the performance benchmarks and monitoring will become easier for government.
Despite the large number of benefits, there are also few concerns that might surface up due to mergers. There might be a decrease in the number of jobs going down due to branches of merged banks getting shut. Loss of regional identity will be another issue as customers preferred regional small banks due to local affinity. Also due to current slowdown in the economy, it is important to increase the credit flow in the short term, whereas mergers will block credit flow in the short term. The balance sheet of strong banks might suffer due to weak banks getting merged into them.
Bank mergers are hence complex procedures with extraordinary peril or pay-off. Although it might not sound as the best idea in the short term, In the long term it may reap off great dividends for the economy and the banking sector.
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Chandrayaan Mission: Is it a complete failure? …by Shivangi Singh
Right from the early civilization man has been keen to resolve the mysteries of universe.To accomplish this he has tried to explore heavenly bodies numerous times.Chandrayaan Mission is one such attempt to unleash the secrets of moon which are still unknown to the world.This was the second time India sent a rocket to study the moon.Earlier Chandrayaan 1 was launched by ISRO.Chandrayaan 2 consisted of 3 parts namely rover,lander and the orbiter.Name of the lander was given as Vikram and the name of rover was kept as ‘Pragayaan’ meaning wisdom.Lander was designed to land on the south pole of the moon and rover was suppose to be mobile on the moon’s surface.Everything was going as planned
when Chandrayaan 2 left the space station .When Chandrayaan 2 was merely 2.1 km from the moon’s surface ISRO lost contact with the lander but by then the orbiter was successfully detached from it and was orbiting around the moon as expected.Lander was suppose to make a soft landing on the moon’s surface but unfortunately it couldn’t do so.This couldn’t be thought of as a complete failure of the mission as the orbiter is there in its place.Rather it should be considered as a commendable effort from our scientists to achieve this feat which is not yet achieved by any nation in the world.
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Contribution of Cashless Economy in India ….by Shinvangi Singh
With the advent of technology India is rapidly moving towards a cashless economy.There has been an increase in a slew of online payment platforms like Paytm,Google-Pay,Phonepay etc. which have made transactions as easy as the click of a button.Although in other countries like US it is decades old,in India it has started expanding its scope since last few years.
Missions like ‘Digital India’ have paved way for the future of cashless economy in India.
Cashless economy as the name suggests is an economy which doesn’t involve the physical transfer of cash from one person to another.It is cost -efficient,time saving and user friendly.There has been a huge increase in digital transactions after demonitisation in 2017.Back in early days,one had to stand in long queues in banks or Atm outlets to withdraw or deposit money.Now ,this can be done from the comfort of your home or rather any place by just logging into your account .This also doesn’t involve any rocket science to be able to transact money online .All you need is an internet connection and a smartphone and some basic knowledge to operate it.This is a very secure and a fast process.
Thus,it can be said that cashless economy has played a pivotal role in reshaping the banking and payments industry.It has many more milestones to cover in near future.
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Farmers suicide- social and economic implications ….by Abhishek Upamanyu
Farming is said to be the oldest profession of mankind. When agriculture was discovered and organised, it led to establishment of civilizations and later urbanization. An integral part of this ecosystem is farmer. This was even recognized by Artha-shastra and Puranas, wherein even a king never shied from ploughing a field in his spare time. The Artha-shastra also forewarns that when farmers suffer due to war or high taxation, famines were the unintended consequences.
Yet, even after 70 years of Independence from British Raj, we have failed in implementing policies which can usher farmers in the modern era of capitalist economy. Farming constitutes only 15% in Gross Value Addition (GVA) of the country but employees 57% of Indian population. The over-dependence on farming leads to many challenges which remain unresolved even today – Disguised unemployment, reduced productivity, lack of incentives to modernize agriculture, market middlemen, lack of competitiveness in global exports etc.
Their unresolved status has severe socio-economic implications. Farmer inspite of toiling all through year using his decade old tools and beasts, hardly gains any satisfactory remuneration. One of the foremost problem is access to institutional credit. Due to lack of financial education and documentation/collateral, the farmer is forced to rely on informal credit from moneylenders/shroffs at very high interest rates. Though PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and institutions like Cooperative banks have improved the situation from previous usury but situation remains concerning in some pockets of rural India. The over-dependence on monsoon can at times lead to significant losses in harvest. If by luck monsoon is favorable, it is another tedious task to sell the produce in Agriculture Market Produce Commissions (APMCs) due to the many layers of middlemen who fleece all the profit of farmer in the form of commission. Sometimes, the farmer is not able to even get his principle on the sum invested in the crop. Repeated cycles of failure to gain profit ultimately leads to debt trap. This is the primary cause of farmer suicides. The launch of e-NAM with upgradation of e-haats is a unique approach to tackle the problem.
The increasing disillusionment with agriculture has led to increasing feminization of agriculture with men migrating to cities in the search of manual labour and unskilled work while women are handed the responsibility to plough the field. For some years, Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) did avoid this trend but as inflation pressure increased and employment was hard to get, this seems to be an inevitable consequence. The capital good makers have a challenge in front of them of how to design modern farming equipments which are gende-friendly. Another much needed reform is land reforms as most women and vulnerable communities do not have land ownership while they cultivate them. Hence, they do not have incentive to invest in land.
If appropriate reforms in these directions are taken then certainly the goal of “Doubling of Farmers Income” by 2022 along with the dream of US $ 5 trillion economy is not far from reach.
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Increasing Pollution: A menace …by Gopika G S
Pollution is one of the serious causes which harms the human beings.There are different types of pollution such as air pollution,water pollution etc..Some times these pollution are even caused due to the harmful activities of human beings.
Now one of the serious pollution causing our country is air pollution in Delhi.The smoke has spread all over Delhi and vehicles are unable to be drove on the roads..People are also unable to come out of the house due to the respiration problems that are caused by this air pollution.The Delhi government has introduced odd even scheme so that only odd numbers vehicles are allowed during odd days and even numbered vehicles are allowed only on even days.Schools and colleges are also closed.But a very sad action of Delhi government is that the people who are engaged in street cleaning are even doing their duties on roads irrespective of the pollution.
So the Delhi government should take more effective strategies to curb this pollution.Above all it is the responsibility of all the human beings to look after our nature and protect themselves.
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Contribution of Cashless Economy in India …by Gopika G S
Cashless economy is one of the powerful initiative of prime minister Narendra Modi government in India. The objective behind this initiative is to make people easy access to money transactions.This initiative comes under digital India campaign.
Cashless economy enables the rural as well as urban people.It is much benefited by the rural people as they have no direct banking facility. Under this initiative people are not needed to carry their cash with them,instead a card is issued by the respective banks and those cards can be used by the customers. Both debit as well as credit cards are issued by the banks.These cards can be used even for shopping..
The main disadvantage is that the card can be lost and it can be misused by the person who had stolen when the number password is known.So people should be very careful while carrying the cards.But apart from this minor disadvantage,cashless economy is a powerful tool for the growth of Indian economy..
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How is Swacch Bharat Mission changing India’s Image? …by Pratibha
The “swacch bharat mission” or” the clean India campaign” has become a notional movement to a cleaner and greener country. This scheme came in 2014 on thebirthday of Mahatma Gandhi on october 2 . The prime minister started this mass movement to eradicate the disease caused by open defecation , garbage littering on roadside and people living in unhygienic conditions. This movement has been successful in making the rural and urban areas free from open defecation by construction of toilets with the help of municipalities and gram panchayats.
Although people in remote areas still need to be made aware of clean and hygienic living by adopting various healthy habits like washing hands before eating,cleaning the surrounding areas to avoid communicable diseases and water borne diseases.
This initiative has been supported globally and PM Modi was also awarded by gates foundation for his successful contribution in bringing a basic need of living
to limelight. Various steps at local level government have also been taken to ensure proper disposal of garbage. Certain NGOs have come forward to support
this mission by volunteering to a better and cleaner India.
A long road is still to cover . Gandhiji himself emphasised on living in clean and healthy environment for the upliftment of society.
” cleaner India , a better India.”
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Why do Private Banks earn more profit than the Public Sector Banks …by Shivangi Singh
“Uneasy lies the head which wears the crown” is a popular saying.Government is a major stake holder in public sector banks.So,all the policies of the public sector banks are in tune with the Governments plans.There is no doubt that private sector banks earn more profit than public sector banks.There are many reasons behind this.
Firstly,public sector banks have to allocate most of their advances nearly 40 percent to the priority sector .Priority sector comprises of areas like agriculture,health,education etc.
While private sector banks are not bound to do so.Secondly,public sector banks have to be set up in remote areas like villages and sub urban areas where the chances of generating profit are low.Whereas most of the private sector banks are set up in urban areas.Private sector banks focus on maximising profits with limited capital without caring about the needs of common people.But public sector banks have their motto to serve people our country even if it means compromising its profit.Most of the private sector banks invest in nabard bonds which promises them 100 percent return.
So,the non performing assets are comparatively lower in private sector banks as compared to public sector banks.The policy making is also faster in private sector banks as compared to public sector banks which are usually frought with delay.This situation of public sector banks can be improved by improving the priority sector.
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Tackling Fake News …by Kiran Shukla
Fake News now a days is dangerous for all group of people, fake news is getting viral for selfish purpose on digital medium like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter which can divert people or make them violent. Politicians do it for their Vote bank, to divert people regarding religion. Being a good civilian it is our responsibility to understand what is right or what is wrong and diffrenciate carefully and not to get diverted by any false news. There a few news anchor who work on fake news if it is right or wrong that is appreciable.
To be refrained from fake news we should not forward any post any information which is violating for public we need to very very care fully while selecting data. How much it can be harmful you can imagine from J&K where govt has applied 144 article and cut the Internet phon connections and even TV channels are also banned in that region. Similarly in case of Ayodhya Ram Mandir Verdict they instructed not to spread rumours other wise they will be punished. So we should care for everyone’s sentiments should not do, post or forward any thing which is harmful for siciety
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