Five States did manage a significant decline in the average number of farm suicides between 2003 and 2010. However, more States have reported increases over the same period. The television story was genuine and sensitive. At least 90 farmers, it said, had committed suicide in two months in Andhra Pradesh. These were cotton growers. Actually, last year, Andhra farmers killed themselves at the rate of 210 each month on average, according...
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NREGA Lines Pockets. Not of the Poor by Abhishek Bhalla
JANGU, 40, a Dalit labourer in Paraspur village in Gonda district, 120 km northeast of Lucknow, displays his job card in complete disbelief. “My job card was made three years ago and shows three payments. But I was never given any work, so how was the payment made?” he asks, puzzled. The first entry shows a payment of Rs 1,400 but he received a paltry Rs 100. He never went...
More »Anna Hazare inciting people on FDI: Swami Agnivesh
-The Times of India Activist Swami Agnivesh on Saturday criticized Team Anna for provoking people against the Union Cabinet's decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail. At a school function at Jaipur, he said Anna Hazare and his team were making "factually incorrect and irresponsible statements". "Statements with factual mistakes are preventing people from engaging in a healthy debate. People opposing FDI should discuss rather than play around with the...
More »1 in 2 farmer households in debt: Study by B Sivakumar
A National Sample Survey Organisation ( NSSO) study found that nearly half of the country's farmer households are in debt. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Punjab are the top three states recording highest percentage of farmers in debt. Of the 89.35 million farmer households in the country, 43.42 million are unable to come out of the debt trap, the report said. AP tops the chart with 82% of farmers in debt,...
More »FDI in retail: Farmer bodies throw their weight behind retail FDI by Sutanuka Ghosal & Nidhi Nath Srinivas
Large farm lobbies are backing the government's decision to allow foreign supermarkets to set up shop in the country, saying it will shorten the supply chain and get growers a larger share of the final selling price. Most farmers, however, want the government to go a step further and make it mandatory for retailers to buy 75% of their produce directly from farmers, bypassing the restrictive 'mandi' auction system. "Traders and middlemen...
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