A farmer died of broken heart over meagre assistance that he got from the government for the crop loss he suffered two years ago. Venna Peddaseshi Reddy (50) of Peddagarlapadu village, 15 km away from here, raised paddy, cotton and red chilli on two acres of his own land and two more acres on lease as a tenant. He lost all the three crops due to the rains in October and...

Fearing a default from Andhra Pradesh-based microfinance institutions (MFIs), whose cash flows have been disrupted by new laws, lenders have asked RBI to ensure stability by bringing the sector under its purview. In a meeting called by the Reserve Bank to discuss funding of MFIs, it asked banks whether the institutions were repaying loans on time and if the end-borrower was suffering because of the credit crunch faced by them. RBI...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday released Rs.400 crore for the Andhra Pradesh government as advance from the National Calamity Contingency Fund to take up immediate relief and rehabilitation measures in the State that were affected by unprecedented rains and cyclonic storms in the last few months. Dr. Singh told a delegation of over 20 Congress MPs that the Centre would take speedy action on the reports of the Central team...

IT WAS a windfall five years ago that taught Panchali Satyavva the power of a lie. It happened one Monday afternoon in Someshwar village of Nizamabad district in Andhra Pradesh. It was raining in sheets and she had just placed a bucket under the steady trickle of water from the roof of her hut. Two men were at her door, holding umbrellas and offering her an unsolicited Rs. 5,000. They...

The farmer in picture committed suicide 18 months ago An advertisement released by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka in its campaign for the coming taluk and zilla elections has put it in a spot. The advertisement, published in some Kannada newspapers on December 19, shows a ‘happy' farmer harvesting sugarcane and another driving a tractor. It claims that the “doors of his fortune opened after the BJP came to...