-Livemint.com Five months after a Rs34,022-crore farm loan waiver announced by the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP govt, farmer suicides continue in Maharashtra Mumbai: Five months after a Rs34,022-crore farm loan waiver, farmers continue to take their lives in Maharashtra. As per the data reported by the six divisional commissionerates across the state, 2,414 farmer suicides were reported in the state between 1 January and 31 October. The Amravati division, which accounts for five districts...

-Down to Earth Death of cotton farmers due to pesticide poisoning in the Vidarbha region raises vital questions about the government's attitude towards regulation of toxic pesticides One more evil has reared its ugly head in Maharashtra’s arid Vidarbha region, which has so far been infamous for farmer suicides. Some 35 farmers in the region have died of pesticide poisoning in last four months. Most of them were working in cotton and...

-PTI Mumbai: Doctors in Maharashtra will now have to mention generic names of medicines as against prescribing only a certain brand, giving patients a choice. With a generic prescription, patients can go in for low-cost options for the same medicine. The state government, in a statement yesterday, said as per a decision of the state medical council under clause 1.5 of the Indian Medical Council Regulations, doctors should prescribe drugs with generic names...

-The Indian Express On Thursday, Fadnavis chaired a high-level meeting where the proposal was cleared. Mumbai: IN A move that would make the cut-off date for eligibility for rehousing slum-dwellers almost irrelevant, the state government has proposed that all residents of slums in Mumbai would be entitled to rehabilitation under the slum redevelopment policy. With almost every second city resident living in a slum, government sources admitted that the proposal could have a...

-The Financial Express How can the cotton and soybean farmers of Vidarbha and Marathwada supplement their incomes so they can get out of the trap of debt and self-engineered death? That was the theme of Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s ninth edition, four-day agricultural exhibition at Nagpur, called Agrovision, to which I was invited.  A promising beginning has been made. In October last year, the National Dairy Development Board commenced operations. It...