-The Hindu     Paddy cultivation is no longer lucrative in Kanyakumari district Kanyakumari: The fertile rice bowl of erstwhile Travancore, now part of Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, is gripped by a serious economic and ecological crisis. The emerald green paddy fields, banana and coconut groves in the backdrop of the Western Ghats, and irrigated by hundreds of water bodies may soon fade into a neglected prized painting, if urgent measures are not taken, warn...

-Deccan Chronicle   Hyderabad: Chirman Ramulu, a 65-year-old farmer can now be seen at temples begging for food and money. Ramulu, who has seven acres of farmland in Kazipally village, was well off years back and used to support his family of four including his wife and two daughters. He used to grow paddy on his land and earn enough by selling it twice a year. But, now he has given up farming...

-The Hindu     Even a cursory look at how Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have fared will tell us how the mere formation of a smaller State is no guarantee for better lives for those groups for whom these States have been created Smaller States have been the new political mode of addressing basic issues that were otherwise left unresolved. However, fighting for a new state and reconstructing on a more sustainable democratic content...

-ManipurTimes.com Ningthoujam Kumar Mangang, a hardworking man from Manipur set off on a rare mission, to introduce the goodness and its advantages of 'Black-Gold' in the state, and now he contributes nearly 360 metric tons of 'Black-Gold' per year in the state. Kumar works starting his day early to travel nearly 25 km from home to oversee his black-gold field, with a size of around one acre at Nongdum of Imphal...

-The New York Times BOLLIKUNTA, India - Latha Reddy Musukula was making tea on a recent morning when she spotted the money lenders walking down the dirt path toward her house. They came in a phalanx of 15 men, by her estimate. She knew their faces, because they had walked down the path before. After each visit, her husband, a farmer named Veera Reddy, sank deeper into silence, frozen by some terror...