-Firstpost.com The battle for the rural heartland has commenced in full earnest.  Even though the two main opposition parties are not officially behind the strike called by farmers, their support and muscle is in full evidence. Surprisingly, the Shiv Sena – an alliance partner of the present government -- has also supported the agitation. Yesterday, milk and vegetables had to be brought into some of Maharashtra’s cities under police escort.  The shrill...

-Livemint.com Maharashtra farmers continue with their protests despite assurance from chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of a debt waiver by October New Delhi: The fifth day of the strike by protesting farmers in Maharashtra on Monday witnessed unprecedented visuals of milk tankers being ferried to state capital Mumbai under heavy police cover. Not long ago, before the monsoons arrived last year, rail wagons transporting water to severely drought-hit districts in the state were...

-Firstpost.com If one purely compare the January-March quarter GDP growth of fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2016, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s prediction that demonetisation will shave off 2 percentage points of India’s GDP has come true. In the January-March quarter of FY16, GDP grew by 9 percent, which has come down to 6.1 percent in the corresponding quarter this year— a near 3 percentage point difference. Even the full...

-Frontline Low prices following a bumper crop and the State government’s inability to procure much of the yield leave tur farmers in Maharashtra in a quandary. DROUGHT or abundance, farmers seem to be perpetually doomed in Maharashtra. The most recent crisis unfolding in the agrarian segment is the crashing prices of pulses, particularly tur dal, and the inability of the State government to procure the entire crop. Adding to the problem...

-The Hindu Business Line Combatore: V Pandian, a vegetable grower at Ketti Pallada in the Nilgiris, recalled the wild buffalo intrusion on his farmland around mid-March. “A herd of 30 or so wild buffaloes trampled on the half-acre plot in which carrot shoots had started to show up, destroying the crop completely. I just gave up,” he said. The sleepy hamlet, located 15 km from Coonoor, has become the haunting ground for...