The agrarian crisis is far from over. Amidst news of farmers' suicide reported from parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, an official document released in December by the National Sample Survey Organisation states that nearly 52% of India's agricultural households were indebted during July, 2012 - June, 2013. The average amount of outstanding loan per agricultural household in India was Rs. 47000 (see link below). Based on a survey of...

-The Indian Express In 2001-05, 50 sexual assault cases were reported at the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital - the nodal government hospital that conducts medical examination of such victims from East and North East Delhi. In June 2010-December 2013, the number of cases jumped to 221 - an over fourfold increase. The number of victims who were assaulted more than once also showed a significant increase - from 14 per cent...

-The Hindu The findings from the latest International Labour Organisation report on real wages point to a mix of proactive initiatives and policy paralysis in different contexts. The study notes that continuing deceleration in the growth of global real wages and discriminatory pay gaps based on gender and nationality could sharpen household income inequalities. A most striking finding is that labour productivity growth outstripped increases in real wage between 1999 and...

-Frontline The Left and other national parties protest against the NDA government's attempts to dilute the MGNREGS by limiting its budget and reducing its reach. IN a rare show of solidarity, representatives of several political parties took issue with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on its controversial proposal to restructure the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The opposition, which was initially confined to the...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Following up on its October investigation of data irregularities in the National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF), the Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI) stated on Tuesday that it had found pesticide residues in one-third of the organic products retailed in New Delhi that are marketed as chemical pesticide-free. The owner of a retail store mentioned in the response by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI),...