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Did the bias in farm loan waivers drive PM Modi to shoot them down?

Past experience shows loan waivers benefited only 30% of India's farmers; here again, the richer cultivator skimmed the cream, leaving very little for his poorer brethren

Abhishek Waghmare  |  New Delhi 

In a television interview earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi categorically rejected the possibility of a nationwide farm loan waiver in the run up to the general elections. The debate on whether a loan waiver is the right way to alleviate farm distress, or whether cash support is a better and more enduring solution will go on.

But it is worth revisiting the after-effects of the second nationwide farm loan waiver scheme implemented in India in 2008. A lopsided scheme? Firstly, a recent survey by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) shows ...

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First Published: Wed, January 09 2019. 13:22 IST