(Probable Question: Market intervention in the form of 'Minimum Support Prices' have not yielded intended results. Discuss. Suggest reforms.) Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices. However, there are several problems associated with the MSPs explained … Continue reading Minimum Support Price

(Probable Question: How the electronic-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) has assisted in solving the problem of highly fragmented agricultural market in India? What are the challenges faced by e-NAM?) Agricultural market in India is highly fragmented. With each farmer confined to a single mandi in many products in many states, we currently have thousands of markets … Continue reading National Agriculture Market

(Probable Question: Discuss the steps taken by the government to increase the direct tax to GDP ratio which has been rather stagnant from 2008-09 onwards.) The direct tax (corporate tax and personal income tax) to GDP ratio has been rather stagnant from 2008-09 onwards, ranging between 5.4% and 5.7%. This is in contrast to the … Continue reading Direct Tax to GDP Ratio

Author: Santosh Paul The fourth senior most judge of Supreme Court, Justice Kurian Joseph has recommended increasing retirement age of judges in higher judiciary to deal with the huge pendency of cases. The retirement age of High Court judges currently is 62 years. Most liberal democracies in the west have a retirement age of 70 … Continue reading Summary-The Hindu-The case for increasing the retirement age of judges

(Probable Question: Bamboo has been described as 'Green Gold' and significant focus has been accorded to it in the current budget. Mention the advantages of cultivation of Bamboo. Note: Questions may be asked in relation to significant agricultural products which have been in the news. Similar Question: Mention the advantages of the cultivation of pulses because … Continue reading Advantages of ‘Green Gold’

Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National Bamboo Mission (NBM) falls under the purview of National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) during remaining period of Fourteenth Finance Commission (2018-19 & 2019-20).  The Mission would ensure holistic development of the bamboo sector by addressing complete value chain and establishing effective linkage of producers (farmers) with industry. The National Bamboo … Continue reading National Bamboo Mission

(Probable Question: Agriculture marketing in India requires wide-ranging policy reforms. Discuss.) A robust 'agricultural marketing' policy is imperative in order to improve the situation of farmers in the country. and without such policy interventions, the aim of doubling farmers income by 2022 would be a pipe-dream. Currently, 'agricultural marketing' in India suffers from policy distortions, … Continue reading Agriculture Marketing

(Probable Question: Do you think that it is time for India to move from an annual central budget to, like most modern economies, a multi-year budget?) The Centre’s budget is set for an annual horizon. This means that the revenues and expenditure are decided for the upcoming year. This is in contrast to most of … Continue reading Annual Central Budget or Medium-term Expenditure Framework

(Probable Question: One fundamental issue with expenditure planning in India has been a strong tendency towards revenue expenditure at the expense of capital expenditure. Explain. Suggest remedial measures.) Budget expenditure is an important tool for the government to advance policy objectives. Therefore, for effective and desired outcomes, along-with allocation of budget to specific sectors, a strategy … Continue reading Budget Expenditure Strategy

Fairness / tackling the biases AI Based on the premise that a large set of well-diversified data may be an accurate description of the world, most of the developer community takes a technocratic attitude that data-driven decision making is good and algorithms are neutral. However, this argument does not recognize the fact that the existing … Continue reading Ethics and Artificial Intelligence