India’s rapidly growing private microcredit industry faces imminent collapse as almost all borrowers in one of India’s largest states have stopped repaying their loans, egged on by politicians who accuse the industry of earning outsize profits on the backs of the poor. The crisis has been building for weeks, but has now reached a critical stage. Indian banks, which put up about 80 percent of the money that the companies...

The rural poor in Andhra Pradesh, a State showcased as a model for SHG-bank linkage, are caught in the vortex of microfinance. WITHIN a decade of their coming into operation, microfinance institutions (MFIs) have dealt a serious blow to the economy and the well-being of thousands of families in rural Andhra Pradesh. Harassment by their collection agents has allegedly driven at least 60 borrowers to death, and the number is...

It is two weeks now that the state cotton federation has launched procurement but not a single farmer has turned up to sell cotton at its collection centres because of the huge gap between minimum support price and the open market rates. But private traders are now being accused of cartelising in order to pull down prices as it has become a buyers` market. Nearly half a dozen incidents of clashes...

Farmers at Tappal in Aligarh are regrouping themselves to launch an agitation in support of their demand of increase in the rate of compensation for land acquisition to construct a township along the Yamuna Expressway. These farmers are those whose land has not been acquired as yet. They are demanding rates equal to Noida for their land. On the other hand, farmer leaders alleged arm-twisting by the police and district...

A court in India has given life sentences to 44 Marxist supporters for killing 11 landless farmers supporting a rival party 10 years ago. The farmers were supporters of the state of West Bengal's opposition Trinamul Congress party. The 44 supporters of the Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) were convicted of murder and rioting. The convicted include CPI-M senior leaders Mohan Sheikh and Gopal Majhi and two senior rural body members. A...