Comment by sabman83 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sabman83 | Hacker News Reader

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“ If anything the Indian media absolutely loves to troll and embarass the government, “...” I would suggest the media in India is far freer of government influence than the mainstream media in the United States”

This above argument is a joke. A good majority of the mainstream media in India are paid for and/or afraid of the current government. There is plenty to be said about this but I want to stick with farm bill issue.

You say: “ current farmer protests, they are demanding that minimum price supports not be removed.” That is not the demand. The demand is to ensure that these new trading places outside of the mandis support the minimum price. The minimum price is a not a law but these mandis do follow them especially since the government also procures crops from the farmers. The farmers fear that with non-government buyers entering the market they would be less incentivized to buy them at minimum price. There are couple of links below that go into more of the nuances of the bill and what the farmers fear.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/what-is-the-basi...

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/in-three-ordinan...

These articles are precisely the kind of trolling a lot of Indian media does.

There is a law that authorizes the government to set an MSP. That is precisely all an actual piece of legislation should do. Governments and administrative bureaucracies need flexibility to function. The details in any sane government are worked out by administrative rule making which is constrained by other laws.

This authority is used by the government and has been used by the government to set an MSP every year for 70 years with the MSP constrained by other legislation that also constrains other budgetary activity.

Or do you think instead parliament should instead figure out the MSP for 2050 now or maybe have a legislative session including a massive lobbying free for all by the buyers and sellers every year. I’d rather have the MSPs set in a rule based fashion with some limited and rarely used discretionary authority to change the rule based levels as is the case under the law now.

Under the law, all parties have to abide by the MSP, period and in any event even if they didn’t, which they have to do, the farmers can get the MSP at the mandis and directly from government buyers. Why protest? If the new buyers won’t pay up, don’t sell to them.

Have you ever in the history of the world, heard of any bona-fide business person acting in good faith, protesting a new buyer, who was previously prevented from buying their product by legislation, entering the market? The actual farmers, the vast silent majority, are, if anything happy to see this happen.

What you say contradicts the article. Can you provide some link to your claim about the law?

Three Bills,

First one is giving the freedom to sell produce anywhere instead of designated grain markets. Sounds good? Until you realise that Grain Markets Officials were there kind of observers (at least in the spirit of law). Now Companies with teams of lawyers can deal directly with illiterate of private farmers. the las specifically gives only DM as highest arbiter in event of disagreement.

Second one is giving freedom to store produce as much as one wants. Sounds good on paper until you realise most of the produce (wheat, rice, veggies, anything) need special environment to store. Which private farmers lack & only Adani Ambani have access to those modernized silos. Guess who is going to buy it cheaply at harvesting season & then store it for months/years & release the produce to market to maintain the artificial scarcity? Sounds similar to modern diamond industry.

Third One, removing the MSP, Minimum Support Price. Anybody can pay as high as they want to buy the produce in open market. Ambani gave free 1GB internet for two years to drive out the competition in mobile network market. Its a known business plan in SV to bleed money to drive other competitors out. Ambani's competitors are small scale flour mills, shop owners, contartors, small scale sellers. Guess who will be out of business in 2-x years by Ambani's unlimited money & guvernment support?

If you think teams of lawyers are fleecing illiterate farmers, start a company and go buy produce from the farmers for 10% more. Nothing stops you from doing so. If you think the the private buyers won't honor MSPs, setup an NGO or file public interest litigation.

Do you realize how many inefficiencies are caused by pre-Independence and 1960s rules around how much food you can buy and store? Again, if you think they are cornering the market, buy or build a grain silo and compete.

India has the absolute lowest costs of mobile service in the world today. Jio remains the cheapest option in India and in my experience has by far the best service. Jio no longer offers free service but it's still cheaper than anyone else and is almost an order of magnitude cheaper than the prices offered by legacy mobile companies when they came on the scene. How exactly is Jio fleecing consumers?

Why shouldn't a better, cheaper service drive out the old players who can't compete at the same level? That's how market economies should work.

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