Supporting Indian Farms The Smart Way

This open access book brings together varying perspectives for transformational change needed in India’s agriculture and allied sectors. Stressing the need of thinking for a post-Green Revolution future, the book promotes approaching this change through eight broad areas, indicating the policy shifts needed to meet the challenges for the coming decade (2021-2030). The book comprises of ten contributions. Apart from the overview chapter on transformational change and the concluding chapter on pathways for 2030, there are eight thematic chapters on topics such as transforming Indian agriculture, dietary diversity for nutritive and safe food; climate crisis and risk management; water in agriculture; pests, pandemics, preparedness and biosecurity natural farming; agroecology and biodiverse futures; science, technology and innovation in agriculture; and structural reforms and governance. The writing style of these papers written by technical experts is forward-looking—not merely an analysis of what has been and why it was so, but what ought to be. This is an essential reading for those interested in agriculture, food and nutrition sectors of India, and more so their interconnectedness.

This book provides a blueprint for the allocation of public expenditures “in” and “for” agriculture at the dis-aggregated state level and suggests a reorientation in favour of disadvantaged regions where the marginal returns on additional investments would be higher. It provides insights into the inter-linkages between public expenditures, private investment, rural poverty, and agriculture productivity from a regional perspective to reflect upon spatial differences in the welfare effects of various investments, subsidies, and policies. The book focuses on agricultural growth and rural poverty reduction through public and private investments, non-farm employment, and other pathways to the formulation of appropriate policies at the dis-aggregated state level. It presents new evidence based on advanced econometric tools for analysing and understanding the relationship between public and private investments in agriculture and input subsidies (fertilizer, power, irrigation, and credit) together with their impacts at the dis-aggregated state level. The book also deliberates on an income based direct support system for farmers as an alternative to the existing input price subsidy regime. Accordingly, the book offers valuable insights not only for researchers working on poverty alleviation, rural economy, and agricultural growth, but also for policymakers.

This book brings together unique experiences of India, China and Israel in overcoming economic, social, and natural resource challenges. Through its eleven chapters, the book captures the role of groundbreaking innovations in achieving unprecedented agricultural growth and stabilizing these nations. It provides a future outlook of the new challenges that will confront these countries in 2030 and beyond, related to tackling food and nutrition security, sustainable agricultural growth and adhering to improved food safety standards. This book provides useful insights for exploring technological innovations and policies that can address these future challenges and develop profitable and sustainable agriculture. This volume also highlights valuable lessons that India, China and Israel provide for the rest of the developing world where population is growing fast; natural resources are limited; and it is a challenge to produce enough food, feed and fibre for their populations. Tracing the historical past, this book is an impressive resource for academicians, policymakers, practitioners, agribusiness players, entrepreneurs in understanding the role of innovations in addressing future challenges.

The present study analyzes temporal and spatial trends in public expenditure on agriculture and irrigation in India. It links sub-period growth performance with expenditure based on structural breaks. The analysis pertains to the period between 1992/1993 and 2019/2020. This is a period that has witnessed a stagnation, and even a decrease in public expenditure in the agricultural sector and a resulting deceleration in productivity growth, which was then followed by a revival in both expenditure and output. Significantly expenditure on subsidies of key inputs, viz. fertilizer, irrigation, and power, however, has not incentivized farmers to increase output and productivity to achieve a higher rate of growth. Empirical findings based on the first-difference regression analysis confirm that agricultural growth is determined by public expenditure on agriculture and irrigation; across the states, however, input subsidies alone are shown to be less, or not at all, efficient. Funds to agriculture and irrigation should be increased in proportion to their contribution to the state domestic product, and input subsidies should be rationalized by weighing their positive welfare effects against their cost to the exchequer.

In the fast-changing policy arena of a country as diverse as India, gauging regional implications of policy shifts is critical but challenging. E3-India is a policy evaluation tool based on the internationally recognized E3ME global model, that allows for iterative quantification of multiple policy options within an integrated economy-energy-environment framework to support wellinformed progressive policy choices at the regional level. This book provides comprehensive coverage of creating and using E3 modeling framework for regional policy analysis, which is available in public domain for the first time in India, addressing existing flagship Government of India policies, including but not limited to the Make in India initiative, Digital India initiative, Automotive Mission Plan, Nationally Determined Commitments under the Paris agreement, and the Atmanirbhar Bharat relief package. These studies have been designed to provide in-depth and lucid insights regarding choices for resource allocation by policymakers, thereby serving as a comprehensive guide for evidence-based policymaking in India.

This book assesses the performance of banks in India over the past several decades, and discusses their current status after fifty years of nationalization. The performance of different categories of banks is evaluated by employing both the traditional ratio analysis and more sophisticated efficiency techniques. The book also explores the market conditions under which Indian banks operate. Going beyond a formal banking study, the book also investigates the causes of the widespread presence of informal credit in parallel to its formal banking counterpart. This approach makes it more comprehensive, unique and closer to the real world. After 50 years of nationalization, India’s banking sector is at a crossroads, given the huge and unabated non-performing assets and talks of consolidation. This book, encompassing both the formal and the predominantly ‘trust-based’ informal credit system, provides essential insights for bankers and policymakers, which will be invaluable in their endeavours to implement meaningful changes. It may also spark new research in the fields of banking performance and efficiency analysis. Lastly, the book not only has significant implications for students of economics, banking, finance and management, but also offers an important resource to support training courses for banking personnel in India.

This book covers the sensitive real-life story of Gulzari and Parvati, their marriage in Lahore in 1942, the eruption of violence and carnage, their flight to New Delhi just a month before the partition and their aristocratic lifestyle that slowly crumbled (so did their love for each other). An interesting account of a man who struggles to keep up with his swanky lifestyle he once enjoyed as one of the richest landed families of Lahore, who never knew what it meant to work for a living! Slowly he watches everything crumble before him…including his relationships and his financial standing.