-One World South Asia Reducing incomes, stagnating yields, increasing costs of cultivation, fragmenting of land-holdings and reducing of institutions credit facilities plot the graph of farmers' suicides in India. A national consultation and public hearing on framers' suicides being organised by Action Aid in the capital brought together experts and policy critics to evaluate the progress of government initiatives to respond to the ongoing agrarian crisis. Suicides are only one extreme symptom of...

-The Hindu Cleansing political parties and elections of illegal money is the first step towards tackling the evil of graft Corruption is nothing but a reflection of the distribution of power within societies. The country is where it is because the political system is self-perpetrating and no party is accountable to anyone except a coterie of people that dominates all decisions. Unless the political system is accountable, going after individual cases of...

-Outlook Against the backdrop of the latest case of alleged honour killing, the Law Commission has recommended making it a non-bailable offence but disagreed with Supreme Court's suggestion that death sentence be applied to all such cases. The Commission had also asked the government to explore the possibility of a new law to prohibit unlawful caste assemblies (like Khaps) which take decisions to condemn marriages not prohibited by law. "No person or any...

-The Hindustan Times Two senior journalists of Zee news channel were arrested in New Delhi on Tuesday on charges of trying to extort Rs. 100 crore from Congress MP Naveen Jindal's group for not doing news reports on coal scam linking his firm. The arrests on charges of extortion came following the registration of a case about 45 days ago on a complaint filed by Jindal's company with Delhi Police's Crime...

-DNA For the first time, Maharashtra has officially admitted that cotton yield is likely to reduce by nearly 40%. Bt cotton failure in more than 4 million hectares of land has reduced cotton yieldfrom 3.5 million quintal to 2.2 million quintal. A report sent by the state agricultural department to the Centre states that the estimate of the net direct economic loss to cotton farmers in the state will be nearly Rs6,000...