-The Hindu In contrast to its pronouncements, the government’s own data suggest the economy is in a deep hole Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address, spoke triumphantly about how demonetisation drove ?3 lakh crore of unaccounted money into the banking system. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is still counting old notes, and unaccounted money cases are ongoing. Thus, this number is at best a guesstimate, and cannot be...
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In Jharkhand, Widespread Backlash Against BJP's Attempts to Divide Adivasis on Religious Lines -Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
-TheWire.in Adivasi leaders and activists say that behind the recent communal legislations is the state government’s hidden agenda to transfer community land to corporates and deflect attention from its failure to address crucial developmental issues plaguing the state. New Delhi: The abuse and heckling that Jean Drèze had to face at the hands of BJP leaders on the eve of 70 years of India’s independence is startling, not just because of the...
More »MS Swaminathan, father of India's Green Revolution, interviewed by Vidya Venkat (The Hindu)
-The Hindu Fifty years since the Green Revolution, the architect of the reform highlights the crisis facing Indian agriculture today It is 11 years since agronomist M.S. Swaminathan handed over his recommendations for improving the state of agriculture in India to the former United Progressive Alliance government, at the height of the Vidarbha farmer suicides crisis, but they are still to be implemented. To address the agrarian crisis and farmers’ unrest across...
More »A fresh perspective on farm suicides -A Srinivas
-The Hindu Business Line A recent book shows how a cocktail of indebtedness, masculinity and consumerism acts as a trigger. For those who have wondered whether indebtedness can be the sole factor driving farmers to take their lives, here is a book that introduces much needed nuance and complexity to the debate. Nilotpal Kumar’s book, based on a study of 22 suicide cases in Ananthapur district (accompanied by a fascinating ethnographic study...
More »Plough or lease land, Karnataka tells farmers -ManuAiyappa Kanathanda
-The Times of India BENGALURU (Karnataka): If you own a piece of agriculture land and haven't bothered to take up cultivation for the past two years or so, either get a plough in or just lease it out to farming contractors. The Karnataka government has begun identifying fallow lands and issuing notices to farmers and land owners asking them to either take up cultivation or give such lands on contract, in tune...
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