-The Hindu Suicides decrease with increasing farm size and yield, but increase with the area under Bt Cotton’. The cultivation of Bt cotton, a genetically modified, insect-resistant cotton variety, is a risky affair for Indian farmers practising rain-fed agriculture, according to a latest study published by California-based agricultural scientists in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe. Annual suicide rates of farmers in rain-fed areas are directly related to increase in Bt cotton adoption, say...

-Livemint.com   Sharp agriculture growth is a necessary factor to beat anti-incumbency The modest price hike in minimum support prices of some crops this week has been lauded as good economics. But the question that will be haunting the government is whether it has done enough to alleviate the distress in rural areas, especially when the Bihar polls later this year are seen as a litmus test for the rule of the...

-Institute of Economic Growth The paper explores the trends, composition, and incidence of out-of-pocket health expenditure (OOPHE) in India, which has been the predominant means of financing its health care needs. Unit-level data from the National Sample Survey on Household Consumer Expenditure for the years 1993–94, 2004–05, and 2011–12 are used. Results show that the burden of OOPHE has increased steadily over time, but more for the lower economic quintiles. Drugs...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union environment ministry has refused to release bio-safety research dossiers on genetically modified mustard developed by Delhi University under review for possible commercial cultivation, activists campaigning against GM crops claimed today. The activists said the ministry had turned down their request filed under the Right to Information Act for the bio-safety dossiers containing data on environmental and toxicity studies done on the GM mustard engineered with bacterial...

-Hindustan Times In signs of rising disparity in wealth distribution, only 928 households own a fifth of India's private wealth, according to a report by the Boston consulting group. The percentage of private financial wealth those 928 households own is 20%, the BCG report titled 'Global Wealth 2015: Winning the Growth Game' said. The number of such ultra high net worth households stood at 284 in 2013, and is projected to account for...