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 Times of India NEW DELHI: Investigations by the income tax department have found that a large number of cooperative Banks have been manipulating and laundering unaccounted money post demonetisation of high denomination currency notes of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 on November 8. As the department's findings suggest a general absence of requisite regulatory oversight over cooperative Banks across the country, the government feels the need for a strong regulatory framework. An...

-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 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 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...