Vijay Sardana Online

New Delhi to New York : Every one is Exploring  New Vision for Agriculture In last one month, I had an opportunity to meet people and to attend conferences and meetings from all walks of life discussing food, agriculture  livestock industry, agribusinesses, crop care industry, IT industry, banking Industry, diplomats, press and media houses, scientists and policy makers, etc. from New Delhi to New York.  It was interesting to see that everyone is talking about food and agriculture, but every one has different perception and idea about development of agriculture sector.  T he best part was people those who have never experienced poverty and never lived in hardships imagining poverty and explianing poverty sitting in 5 star ambiance on well  layout lunch and dinner with drinks. It is really an experience to witness such discussions.   The major drivers for the attraction towards agriculture are food inflation, food productivit y, food wastage, food security, poverty

Government Policies, not hoarding, r esponsible for Food Inflation Government Policies fueling Food Inflation and Discouraging Investments Do you know, state governments charg ing 19.5% taxes at first point of sale between farmer a nd buyer on basic commodities .   According to Economic Survey 2015, it is now clear that major cause of food inflation of agriculture commodit ies is state government policies .  It is very strange that where commercial entity like traders are charging about 1 to 2% commission in commercial transactions, so called welfare state working for the cause of consumers and farmers are charging as high as 19.5% taxes as market transaction tax (i.e. mandi tax) and related charges.  Is there any other place in the world where basic agriculture commodities (without any value addition) is taxes so heavily ?  M odi government is making all attempts to invite investments but not able to make the impact because of these policies of state governme

Top 5 Priority Actions for Sustainable Food Security of India By: Vijay Sardana Bio-economy and Agribusiness Specialist Addressing Food and nutrition security by minimizing food wastage and food production are important precondition to be addressed by the union budget to control food inflation, current account deficit and to promote rural economy. It is also true that agriculture subject; union government cannot do any major interventions except by giving some incentive to private sector including farmers. In overall national interest, Union Government should address the following issues on PRIORITY:  The important expectations from the Union budget are: 1.    Promote water and power saving Irrigation technologies: In order to make agriculture predictable and to ensure regular income for farmers and assured supplied for consumers, irrigation is vital. For next two years make all water conservation technologies like drip, sprinkler, shade nets, solar pu

10 Management Lessons from Delhi Elections Delhi elections will provide many lessons to many people and organizations. In order to understand the outcome of the elections, I was visiting few places to understand the mood of people at least cost and with less efforts.  It was clear that AAP will get majority but no one was sure what will be margin.   My Survey Locations: To understand the mood of people I was frequently visiting and interacting with people at railways stations, bus stands, airport tax stand, subji mandies, footpath markets, metro railway stations and also traveled in metro train and DTC buses.  I also interacted with people during conferences in Five start hotels and inside air-crafts and airports, TV studios and friends in media houses. You must be think why I visited this. The logic is very simple. These are the places where diversified people from various walks of people come and go. The best part is people at these places come from various

Common Man's Proposals for Union Budget - Will government Listen My heartiest respect and tribute to RK Laxman , who was representing us all the time, without fear, favour and charge,  but was never nominated to Rajya Sabha or elected to Lok Sabha or any Assembly. Still he was better representative of Common man than any elected representative. Why? Can we and our elected representatives learn from his contribution ? Think about it. The most important assets of India, produced in India, for India are Citizens of Indian. The biggest question is, 'Do we have policies and systems to take care of them or not?' In last 68 years, we have seen lot of policy initiatives and activities to address the biggest question in any democracy - ' Ensure welfare of people '. There can be various versions what we have done and what we have not done in last 68 years. I will prefer not to spend time on last 68 years because I cannot change anything which is part of

 Agriculture and BJP Election Manifesto Can Modi Government d eliver on agriculture promises?   The new government has taken many initiatives on industrial and financial sector front, but farmers of India are still waiting for the action plan on Agriculture from Modi Government ( or you may also call it - BJP-led NDA Government) as promised in BJP manifesto. Please see the BJP manifesto and commitments made for Agriculture.  S.No. BJP Manifesto for Food  Security and Sustainable Agriculture 1.          The following demand urgent solutions : economy including agriculture, energy, environment including natural resources, education and health, employment, external and internal threats to security, empowerment, Governance, and erosion of moral and societal values. 2.          The BJP-led NDA Government's record of holding the prices is a demonstration of our commitment to break the vicious cycle of high infla