-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 Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy In keeping with the spirit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, the Union government had, in 2004, introduced a pre-legislative consultative policy for public policymaking. In July 2004, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, which rode to power on the twin slogans of development and good governance, launched a website, MyGov.in, to push forward its mandate of participatory governance. In...

-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy As one of the world’s largest rural connectivity endeavours, the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project has been the subject of immense policy interest for the potential it holds to deliver high speed broadband internet to rural India. The building of infrastructure on a scale of this kind was acknowledged as an audacious move owing to the nature of transformation that this could...

-Livemint.com Of the total 12,602 farm sector suicides in 2015, 8,007 were farmers while 4,595 were agricultural labourers New Delhi: A widespread drought and rising indebtedness led to 12,602 suicides by farmers and agricultural labourers in 2015, shows data released by the National Crime Records Bureau. According to the report ‘Accidental deaths and suicides in India 2015’, the total number of suicides in the farming sector is 2% higher than the 12,360 recorded...

-Scroll.in India’s first chief statistician, Pronab Sen, is now country director of the International Growth Centre, which seeks to build effective growth facilities through engagement between policymakers and researchers. In this interview to Scroll.in, he speaks on the 50 days of demonetisation, its failings, its severe impact on the poor, the loss of credibility of the Reserve Bank of India, the push to make India a cashless or less-cash economy, and...