We discussed on the following papers in the past two meetings:

1) Making Services Work for Poor People by Shantayanan Devarajan and Ritva Reinikka

2) Improving Governance to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty by Regina Birner

3) Governance and Public Management, an Introduction by Carolyn J. Hill and Lawrence E. Lynn Jr.

4) Public Policy Making in India: Issues and Remedies by O. P. Agarwal and T. V. Somanathan.

The papers are attached.

Himanshu gave an interesting lecture on natural farming , pioneered by Fukuoka a microbiologist/farmer in Japan in 1950's explained in his book "One Straw Revolution". Natural farming is different from industrial farming and traditional farming as well. The idea of natural farming is that if crops are cultivated without any external "forced" agent, (no machines, prepared compost,), then the crops grown on will have high yield with minimal cost.

SJC by Aniket Kate: In the last decade, over 2000 farmers per year have committed suicides in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. It is a sad and complex situation. The SJC focused on:

1. Statistics and reasons behind farmer suicides in Vidarbha.
2. State and Central governmental relief packages and their failures
3. Suggestions by various NGO studies
4. A discussion on agrarian crisis in general, and possible solutions