-The Hindustan Times India's wholesale inflation rate plunged to 2.38% in September, the lowest in five years, aided by a sharp drop in vegetable and petrol prices, data released on Tuesday showed, rekindling hopes that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will cut interest rates soon. The more than one percentage point drop in wholesale inflation rates over August's 3.74% should bring cheer to the NDA government, which rode to a landslide...

-Down to Earth Sivasankaran's land grabbing spree has threatened millions of livelihoods, says report Indian origin businessman Chinnakannan Sivasankaran has engaged in aggressive land grabbing of more than half a million hectares across Africa, Asia and South America, putting millions of livelihoods at risk. This was revealed in a detailed report released by Barcelona-based non-profit GRAIN on Tuesday. The report says Sivasankaran diverted 0.56 million hectares of food-producing land to production of palm...

-The Economic Times Dinkar Patil, a farmer from Buldhana district in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, normally cultivates cotton on his 13-acre farm land. This year, however, he has skipped the cotton crop and opted for soyabean and tur dal. "The rainfall started late. I did not cultivate cotton because of the delayed rains and the huge increase in cost of cultivation of the crop," said Patil. He is expecting a fall of about...

-The Hindu Group cultivation brings cheer to tribespeople of Thayannankudy KATTAPPANA (Kerala): Ragi, locally known as ‘keppa,' has a traditional link with the food habits of tribespeople, especially the Muthuvans. When its cultivation was taken up under the livelihood programme of the tribespeople of Thayannankudy in the remote forest settlement of the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, it turned out to be a huge group activity. The ragi field on 17 hectares of land will be...

-The Hindu Sangareddy (Telengana): As many as 44 farmers have committed suicides in the last few months in Medak district after taking loans from private financiers Rachaboyina Balagoud was 55 years and belonged to Mylaram village in Wargal mandal. He had about one-and-a-half acres of land. He took loans to the tune of Rs. 12 lakh from various sources, including banks, and a private financer. He had sunk as many as 12...