-Livemint.com Mint’s rural distress index is below its median value, but it conceals varying distress levels across states Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s announcement of farm loan waiver has given credence to similar demands from across the country. Those making these demands include political parties, protesting farmers and even the judiciary. An earlier Plainfacts column had pointed out how farm loan waivers can be counter-productive in the long run, a fact...

-The Hindu Business Line With bumper crop halving prices, traders are refusing to lift stocks Hyderabad: Chilli farmers in Telangana are in a belligerent mood as prices plummeted by more than half. With the State witnessing a bumper crop, the markets are flooded with the produce. As traders are refusing to lift the produce at a remunerative price, huge stocks are piling up at the market yards at Khammam, Warangal and in...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi today asked the BJP "not to play politics with farmers" by waiving loans in Uttar Pradesh alone as agrarian distress was a national crisis and the Centre should come up with a "national" response. Although Rahul described the Uttar Pradesh government's decision as a "step in the right direction", he alleged inaction by the Narendra Modi government by tweeting: "I am happy the BJP has finally...

-The Indian Express Last week, the farmer distress reached Delhi, with a group of Tamil Nadu farmers starting a sit-in at Jantar Mantar. Nagapattinam: On January 1, R Panneerselvam stepped out of his home thrice to check on his wasted paddy crop on his 3-acre land. The final time, a tired Pannerselvam flopped down on a chair and asked his eldest son to fetch him tea from a nearby stall. By the...

-Business Standard Land acquisition cases take on an average 20 years to navigate the courts Within three years of the framing of the new land law by the Centre, as many as 280 cases have landed in the Supreme Court using the window the law provides to challenge pending acquisitions. Yet land switching from farming to industry need not be a zero sum game as two key studies on land released last...