-Livemint.com Inflation for services and a few discretionary items has been higher in rural areas compared to urban centres When income is stagnant, a logical outcome could be curtailing expenditure. But Rural India seems to be fine with paying higher prices for services that range from education to matinee shows. The chart above shows inflation for services and a few discretionary items has been higher in rural areas compared to urban centres. It...

-Down to Earth The schemes Kamal Nath and Bhupesh Baghel announced soon after taking oath will not help those who take loans from money lenders Living up to their poll promises, Kamal Nath and Bhupesh Baghel, the newly elected chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, soon after taking oath, announced that their government will waive off farm loans. While the MP government will waive off loans of up to Rs 2...

-The Hindu The former Chief Election Commissioner on the EVM controversy, why the Supreme Court’s verdict on criminals in politics is a missed opportunity, and electoral bonds The debate on the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) refuses to settle, with political parties continuing to voice their concerns about malfunctioning machines. Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi explains how EVMs work, why he is disappointed with the Supreme Court for refusing to...

-TheWire.in Implementing the loan waiver in Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan will not be easy. It will cost Rs 80,000 crore and might need the states to double the spending on agriculture. New Delhi: On Monday, the newly appointed chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath, proudly announced that his first executive decision was to waive farm loans in the state. While campaigning for the assembly elections, the Congress party had promised that if...

Passionate about the deepening of agrarian crisis, quite often journalists and media persons cite figures related to farm suicide (as provided by the National Crime Records Bureau) in order to draw the attention of the readers. They do so in the following ways: * Compare the absolute number of farm suicides (viz. suicide by cultivators + suicide by agricultural labourers) across regions/ states for a particular time point or time period...