-The Indian Express It’s for the first time that the NCRB has categorised farmers’ suicides due to debt or bankruptcy based on the source of loans. Local moneylenders are usually portrayed as the villains in India’s farmer-suicides narrative, but government data shows that 80 per cent of farmers killed themselves in 2015 because of bankruptcy or debts after taking loans from banks and registered microfinance institutions. According to National Crime Records Bureau’s latest...

-The Hindu Court asks States why lands acquired for SEZs remain barren and abandoned Invoking the legal victory of West Bengal’s farmers over the mighty state in Singur, West Bengal, their compatriots across the country, stripped of their agricultural lands by their governments in the name of Special Economic Zone (SEZ), found their voice in the Supreme Court on Monday. A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar asked the Centre and...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre and seven states, including Bengal, on a plea for return of 45,782 hectares of agricultural land acquired from farmers in the name of creating special economic zones (SEZs) but allegedly diverted by the promoters for other purposes. The petition filed through the SEZ Farmers' Protection Welfare Association of Andhra Pradesh seeks the return of unused land to the farmers...

-The Financial Express New Delhi: Despite India being the world’s largest milk producer for the past many years, a majority of small dairy farmers in the country continue to remain outside the formal credit system of commercial banks and financial institutions, a joint study the National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NIAP) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has stated. The study ‘Formal versus Informal: Efficiency, inclusiveness, and...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A nationwide network of farmers today dubbed the demonetisation exercise "the most hurtful scheme since independence" and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pledges for the agriculture sector announced on December 31 were "a rehash of what already exists". The network of farmers' associations and representatives from across the country said in a letter sent to the Prime Minister that the demonetisation move had shown a "dismaying disregard"...