The Hindu Editorial Analysis : 20th October 2023

The Hindu Editorial Analysis

The Importance of Reading The Hindu Editorial: Reading The Hindu newspaper has several benefits, including improving reading skills, facilitating comprehension, staying informed of current events, enhancing essay writing, and more. For individuals aiming for a career in banking, reading editorials is crucial for vocabulary building. In this article, we will examine today’s editorials, provide practice questions, and highlight important vocabulary words.

Grain in pain.

• Rabi season MSP recommendations of the Commission for R Agricultural Costs and Prices were in sync with GOI’s decision.
• MSP on wheat was enhanced by 7.1% to 2,275/quintal. The scale of increase was modest if inflation and the recent gap between market price of wheat and MSPare used as benchmarks.
• In September, wheat inflated at over 13% in the wholesale market. Moreover, since March 2022, the market price has been higher than the MSP.
• CACP’s reiteration of a suggestion on the procurement model caught attention.
• It said the current system of open-ended procurement distorts cropping patterns and leads to overexploitation of groundwater.
• It needs to be placed in a regional, and not national, context. After all, CACP also wants state governments to play a more active role in popularizing MSP operations.
• Two states headed for elections next month have done just that. The relative share of Telangana and Chhattisgarh in rice procurement over the last five years has risen significantly. That translates into income stability for farmers.
• CACP’s call for adjustments in open ended procurement is a non-starter if income stability and the political incentives to ensure that outcome are ignored.
• Crop distortion is not caused by MSP announcements. It’s procurement that acts as an incentive to farmers.
• MSP is fixed for over 20 crops, but procurement works effectively for only rice and wheat.
• Consequently, farmers respond to that incentive. For example, MSP announcements for pulses are not backed by adequate procurement.
• Consequently despite favorable agro- climatic conditions and assured domestic demand, India’s import dependency on lentils and arhar is 38.5% and 15% respectively.
• CACP’s call for a cap on procurement seems directed at Punjab and Haryana. Mere exhortations won’t deliver. India’s MSP system is characterized by misaligned incentives at two levels, political and farm.
• GOI wants to transition away from the rice and wheat dependency but state governments are incentivised to create procurement mechanisms aimed at those two crops.
• Even CACP seeks more wheat procurement from UP, Bihar and Rajasthan. For CMs grappling with the challenge of raising rural incomes, getting on to the MSP bandwagon is a low-risk option.
• This ties in neatly with the incentives farmers are offered, thereby creating political and economic reasons to avoid reform.
• Unless GOI expands procurement in millets, pulses and oilseeds, it will be hard to break the logjam and also reduce import dependency for some crops.

Practice Questions:

• Crop distortion is not caused by MSP announcements.Discuss
• Why does the CACP’s call for a cap on procurement seems directed at Punjab and Haryana?

Important Vocabs:

• Prominent– important or famous
• Wanton– done in order to hurt somebody or damage something for no good reason
• Normalcy– the state of being normal
• ethnicisation– racialization
• grievances– issues involving pay and benefits

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