-Livemint.com Crash in farm PRIces could accentuate bankruptcy, which was the biggest reason for farmer suicides in 2014 and 2015 After two successive years of drought, 2016 was turning out to be a relatively better year for farmers till 8 November. The decision to scrap high-value currency notes, announced on that day, seems to have hit the farm sector the hardest. While credible and timely data on farm incomes and output is hard...

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election manifesto for 2014 Lok Sabha election says that if elected to the Centre, it will then "(p)ut in place welfare measures for farmers above 60 years in age, small and marginal farmers and farm labours", among other things. Despite the formation of a BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre in 2014, the latest available data on farm suicides from the...

-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...

-Economic and Political Weekly P K Joshi (p.joshi@cgiar.org), Avinash Kishore (a.kishore@cgiar.org) and Devesh Roy (d.roy@cgiar.org) are with the International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi. While outlining strategies to increase availability of pulses at affordable PRIces, it is argued that increasing domestic production of pulses is the only option. Access to one or two protective irrigation sources during the growing season can lead to sizeable increases in pulse production. The har khet...

-The Hindu Gurugram: PRIme Minister Narendra Modi launched the ambitious “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” (B3P) campaign against female foeticide in Panipat in January 2015. Two years later, Haryana, notorious for its skewed sex ratio and patriarchal mindset, saw a historic turnaround. Sex ratio at birth (SRB) in the State this past year touched the 900-mark for the first time in almost two decades. “The PRIme Minister chose Haryana to launch the Beti Bachao,...