-PTI   Households in rural areas hold assets worth over Rs 10 lakh on average, less than half the holdings by those in cities, says a government survey. At the same time, villages account for higher proportion of families owning some physical and financial assets at 98 per cent, higher than 94 per cent in urban areas. "Around 98 per cent of rural households and around 94 per cent of urban households in India...

-Livemint Every time a waiver is done, it diverts access to credit and shrinks credit availability, says RBI governor Raghuram Rajan Mumbai: Vattikuti Prasad grows rice, bananas and sugar cane on his farm as big as 27 football fields in a part of southeastern India where most farmers own plots the size of just one. He has two homes, including a four-bedroom house he rents out in a nearby town. This year...

-The Telegraph Calcutta: Private companies will be able to buy farm produce directly from farmers in Bengal. But the widely-anticipated whoop of exultation from Indian industry over the amendment in the state's agri-marketing act was somewhat muted because of the lack of clarity on the issue of contract farming and the absence of clear guidelines on whether the state government would provide incentives and help in the acquisition of land for private...

-Down to Earth National Human Rights Commission has sought report from the state The K Chandrasekhar Rao government in Telangana seems to have failed to deliver on its promise of reforming the crisis-ridden farm sector in the state. Unofficial figures suggest that more than 400 farmers have committed suicide in the past six months. Telangana, the youngest state in the country, came into existence on June 2 this year. Rao and other leaders...

-The Hindu Silicosis deaths in Rajasthan mines leave behind a trail of young widows The Karauli-Dholpur-Bharatpur mining belt in eastern Rajasthan, which produces the country's best quality red sandstone, also has the largest number of young widows, most of them below 40 years. The older ones were widowed some decades ago, and worse, young girls almost see their future unfold before them. The common link: they were married to miners who died of...