-DNA The aim is to drive farmers out of agriculture and turn food production into industrial enterprise Some years ago, former President APJ Abdul Kalam was addressing students at an annual event organised by K Govindacharya's Bhartiya Swabhiman Andolan at Gulbarga in Karnataka. He exhorted students to work hard, educate themselves to become doctors, engineers, civil servants, scientists, economists and entrepreneurs. After he had ended his talk, a young student got...

-The Week Manorama Online Broken hearts float down the Bhakra Main Line canal. Broken by the endless struggle with the land, with the weather, with the creditor. Broken by broken promises, broken by the honour they lost, broken enough to kill themselves. And, at the sluice gate at Khanauri village they slow down, looking up with unseeing eyes. And, from the bridge across the canal, the beating hearts they broke look...

-The Tribune Chandigarh: One of the main reasons for a large number of suicides in the agriculture sector is debt. It is an established fact that Punjab farmers turn to non-institutional sources of credit despite a large network of banks in the state. At least 52.77 per cent rural households in the state are dependent on non-institutional sources for loans, says Dr Satish Verma, Professor, Reserve Bank of India Chair, CRRID. He...

-The Hindustan Times Suicides by farmers in Telangana and pockets of Maharashtra since the start of a poor monsoon season are threatening to reach alarming levels, as authorities weigh options to handle a long-standing problem. In Telangana, over 100 farmers have committed suicide so far, according to some accounts, which officials were yet to verify. In Maharashtra, 72 suicides have been reported since June. "There have been some suicides. We are ascertaining the...

-The Business Standard   The Indian economy certainly has problems. But compared to the rest of the world, we will take ours any day Over the past couple of years, and particularly the past few months, we have become convinced that economists, the intelligentsia, fund managers, foreign brokers, don't read global macroeconomic news. All of the above have castigated the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for having ruined the economy, causing a massive growth...