-The Hindu Braving Maoist call for boycott, villagers exercise franchise Karimnagar (Tenlangana): In spite of heightened naxalite threat, villagers, mostly dominated by tribal communities, have set an example in Telangana by recording over 90% polling in the Maoist stronghold villages in the interior Mahadevpur, Kataram and Mahamutharam mandals adjoining the Chhattisgarh in the erstwhile Karimnagar district, now in Jayashankar-Bhupalapalli district. Braving the Maoist call for poll boycott, people formed serpentine queues to exercise...

-The Hindu Business Line The BJP faces its toughest battle in Rajasthan, where rural agrarian distress is more acute than elsewhere It has been a long summer for Anirudh Meena. The farmer from Kota in Rajasthan is still waiting for the government to financially compensate his brother Hukumchand Meena’s family. A garlic farmer, Humukchand took his life in May, after the price of the bulb came crashing down, leading to heavy financial...

-ThePrint.in Not BJP or Congress, farmers are setting their own agenda for 2019 Elections. Has the farmers’ movement finally arrived at the centre stage of national politics in India? And, can 2019 be the first Lok Sabha election to be fought mainly on farmers’ issues? I asked myself these questions sitting at the stage of Kisan Mukti March at the Parliament Street last week. Tens of thousands of farmers from all over the...

-The Hindu Business Line Farmers in election-bound States have stopped repaying in anticipation of write-offs Hyderabad: The increasing demand for farm-loan waivers and slippages in existing loan repayments by farmers in anticipation of write-offs are giving banks a nightmare. Apart from drawing the attention of policy makers and political pundits, last week’s mega farmers’ rally in the national capital has also created tremors among bankers. “The expectation of agricultural loan waivers next year when...

-The Indian Express A Basic Income Scheme for the farmer will not tax the government’s resources. But it could stem the tide of distress in the countryside. The neglect of Indian agriculture by the NDA government, despite the tall promises in the BJP election manifesto of 2014 has been the cause of untold suffering of the Indian farmer over the last four years. This has led to large-scale farmers suicides and...