-The Hindu Business Line Rabi sowing down; sales of tractors and two-wheelers dip Mumbai: The demonetisation of high-value currency notes seems to have crushed the tender green shoots of economic recovery in rural India by choking off life-sustaining money supply and impeding the wheels of commerce from spinning. From FMCG firms to two-wheelers to tractor makers, companies had been looking forward to an increase in rural demand in the wake of an adequate...

-The Hindu Delay in Monsoon has compounded the problems of farm labourers from Bahour commune Puducherry: The double whammy of demonetisation and delay in Monsoon has crippled the rural population of Puducherry as they struggle to make their ends meet. The demonetisation move has brought the construction activity across the rural areas to a standstill, throwing thousands out of jobs and without money. The construction sites in rural areas of Bahour, Villianur, Mannadipet...

-Hindustan Times Deficient rainfall has led to a severe drought in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala with 54 out of 76 districts in the three states facing acute water shortage that has left farmers the worst hit. In Karnataka, where the northeast Monsoon (Oct to Dec) has been 79% deficient, water in major reservoirs is down by half, drinking water is getting scarce and migration has been reported from many villages, government...

-Livemint.com Only 23.6% of farmers enrolled for the scheme in 2016, against 22.2% in 2015 New Delhi: Despite setting an ambitious target to cover half of all farmers under crop insurance, the first season rollout of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) has been tepid. According to the agriculture ministry, during the kharif 2016 season beginning June this year, 32.6 million farmers enrolled under PMFBY. While that is a 6.3% rise in...

-Livemint.com Several Bundelkhand farmers contend that demonetisation is a direct attack on the class divide and has reduced the rising gap between the rich and the poor New Delhi: In April this year, before the Monsoon set in on parched Bundelkhand, Ajay Tripathi was witness to countless cattle deaths and fellow villagers migrating in hordes to escape the aftermath of consecutive years of drought. For the young farmer from Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba...