It is clearly the absence of political will rather than a paucity of ideas that is responsible for the country's agrarian crisis. EXACTLY seven years ago this month, the Commission on Farmers' Welfare, appointed by the government of Andhra Pradesh, submitted its report to the then Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. His Congress government assumed office earlier that year replacing the Telegu Desam Party regime led by N. Chandrababu Naidu, which...

-ANI The statistics for farmer suicides in India are as striking as they are shameful. One farmer suicide every 30 minutes in 2009, screamed a NYU School of Law report earlier this year. If one accepts that many suicides also go unreported, even this shocking statistics is perhaps an under-estimation. Why, then, would another three suicides, this time in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad District, be newsworthy? For one, the suicides took place during the...

-The Indian Express   Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday came out in support of NCP leader and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s suggestion to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the UPA’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme (NREGS) should be suspended for “at least three months in a year” so that agricultural labourers are available during the peak season of agricultural operations in various parts of the country. “He (Sharad Pawar) is a...

-The United Nations    Ensuring global food security while striving to save the Planet from damage are the greatest challenges of this century, a senior United Nations official said today, stressing the need to enable smallholder farmers to become more resilient to climate change and to produce more food in ways that are environmentally sustainable. “There is no trade-off between feeding people and saving our Planet,” said Kanayo F. Nwanze, the President of...

-The Times of India   Terming the government's attempt to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail as a miscalculation that lacked political consensus, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has warned that a looming slowdown needs urgent measures to remove supply side blockages. The former finance minister, who heads Parliament's standing committee on finance, said unlike in 2008, the government has no room to increase the fiscal deficit that is already above 5% while...