-Livemint.com Behind the rising tide of farmers’ protests lie several structural weaknesses facing the farm economy In a year when farm growth has crossed the 4% mark and official statistics show a record increase in production, one would have expected farmers to celebrate. Instead, farmers in states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are out on the streets protesting, and in some cases, facing bullets from the local police. What explains this...

-TheWire.in It is about agriculture’s place in the life our country, equity’s place in the life of our agriculture, and farmers’ place in the world of equity. P. Sainath has to be crazy. Or all those who read him, hear him and do nothing about what he is writing, saying, doing, have to be crazy. He says of the Indian drought : ‘Drought horribly exacerbates misery. It adds cruelly to the crisis. It is...

-The Indian Express Demonetisation may not have hit agriculture production but it is the cause for the current unrest When demonetisation happened, many, including this writer, thought the decision, taken at the start of rabi plantings in November, would significantly impact farm production. We were proved wrong. Good monsoon rains, after successive drought years, besides the timely onset of winter conducive to germination, turned out to be strong motivations for farmers...

-PTI Also says that note ban's impact could adversely affect its business The country's largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI), has expressed apprehensions that demonetisation may continue to result in slowing down of the economy and adversely affect its business. The government had discontinued Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes from November 9, 2016, and issued new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 currency notes in exchange for the discontinued ones. The long-term...

-The Indian Express Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar says Maharashtra is a huge state and there are ways to raise the funds Mumbai: The Maharashtra government will have to provide Rs 1.14 lakh crore to write off the entire loan burden of all 1.36 crore farmers in Maharashtra, stoking concerns given the state’s debt burden of Rs 4 lakh crore. Highly placed sources said the state budget for 2017-18 was Rs 2.57 lakh...