-The Indian Express In all, the 42 RRBs have sanctioned Stand Up India loans to 536 people — 97 under the SC head, 32 in the ST category and 407 general category women. THRee RRBs have not sanctioned a single such loan to general category women. Every bank has been told that it will be your responsibility to ensure that wherever you have a branch, you have to give loans to two...

-The Financial Express The cumulative rainfall for southwest monsoon this year (July to September) has been 5% less than normal. The distribution has been uneven, with excess rains in some parts and shortage in several other areas like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra. This has impacted sowing. As compared with last year, sowing is lower for foodgrains and oilseeds. Even the government’s first advance estimates say that...

-NDTV Over 600 farmers have been affected by pesticide inhalation in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region. They skipped wearing protective gear while spraying pesticide, officials claimed Mumbai: Twenty nine-year-old Inder Rathod, who works on cottons fields in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, had sprayed pesticide on the crop last week. That was the last time he saw the lush fields and fluffy cotton crop. "After the spray, I couldn't see anything. It was so sudden,"...

-Scroll.in The Swaraj India leader says the economy needs a big boost in the rural areas and for small scale manufacturers. In July, Yogendra Yadav, the national president of the Swaraj India party, embarked on a nationwide movement accompanied by activists and hundreds of farmers. Under the banner of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee, a coalition of more than 150 farmer unions across the country, the yatra was planned...

-The Indian Express Since July 19, 18 farmers have died in Yavatmal and 14 in surrounding districts in the cotton growing belt of the state. The two fresh deaths have been reported from Nagpur and Akola. Nagpur: Cotton cultivation experts and researchers have said the cumulative effect of several factors, such as humidity, spraying of pesticide cocktails and use of a new kind of spraying machine, seem to be behind the deaths...