The impetus for this research topic came from the recent ongoing farmers protest around the contentious farm bills – The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020. This research is undertaken by the students in order to understand the present deadlock between the Government and the Farmers on the three farm bills and to understand the issue from both the perspectives and to analyze the pros and corns of the Act. The working hypothesis of the research is “A guarantee of minimum support price together with an effective procurement and public distribution system acts as a safety net both for the farmers and consumers.” The research is primarily based on qualitative data analysis and tries to do a comparative study of Bihar where APMC system was abolished and that of Punjab where APMC is very strong, in order to understand how it has impacted both the states and what are the benefits and disadvantages of the APMC system and what can be done to improve the situation, from the perspective of the farmers. The research also tries to explore and analyze the issue of contract farming and its impact on the farmers and the regional differences in the impact.
The research project is divided in to several sections and each part deals with an important farmer’s issue like - farmer’s distress and farmer’s suicide- reasons for it; how is MSP decided - politics behind it; problems and loopholes in the process of deciding MSP; problems with the implementation; how does the Mandi system work - problems, issues and politics behind it; the current change in laws and how will it impact the farmers – opinions of farmers. Further it also includes case study of Punjab and Bihar.
Teacher Coordinators: Miss Alka Pal
As a part of the IQAC-directed Research Mentoring scheme, the Department of Political Science successfully submitted a research titled ‘A Case Study on the Impacts of Online Mode of Learning on Education’. The endeavor was aimed at training the students in the exercise of research designing and writing. The significance of the basics of research is immense in the academic lives of the students as it prepares them for the rigors of higher studies.
With this purpose in mind, a group of students from within the Department of Political Science and the Programme course, was formed. The group met in regular sessions with the faculty coordinator to discuss and understand the basic nuances of research-writing. Step-by-step the group was introduced to the different stages of a research, and were also familiarized with the kind of resources a researcher works with. The students were made aware of the importance of the technique involved in designing a research which must be adhered to in order to produce an empirically sound work.
Given the limitations posed by the ongoing health crisis, the research group followed the methodology of structured interview based on a questionnaire with the respondents through the online mode. The young researchers worked with a sample of a close to 115 respondents and produced a thorough analysis of the primary data collected thus. The research was completed with all the mandatory sections like hypothesis, methodology, literature survey, presentation of finding and analysis of the data. The research group was also familiarized with the aspect of format of any research that is a very important element in its overall designing. In all, the group of young researchers was imparted a basic training in the process of research writing which will assist them in their future academic years.
Teacher Coordinators: Dr. Shashwati