-PTI   Nagpur: Hundreds of farm widows from Vidarbha have huge expectations of a relief and rehabilitation package from the newly-elected BJP government at the Centre to combat the agrarian crisis in the region. Some widows who were indirectly a part of 'Chai Pe Charcha' on March 9 this year at village Dabhadi of Vidarbha region during the election campaign, have brought to notice core issues like cost, credit and crop failure resulting...

-The Business Standard NHAI approves Rs 6,000 cr of premium deferment for 9 projects, on basis of March guidelines In a major relief to road developers, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has approved deferment of premium worth Rs 6,000 crore for nine projects, including those of Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Infrastructure. The board of NHAI met on Friday and gave a final approval to the nine applications, said a senior...

-The New York Times   As politicians scramble for India's 815 million votes in the most expensive and closely contested general election in the nation's history, an unexpected protest is rumbling from what was once one of the country's most placid voter blocs: its farmers. The protest is inflamed by rising attention to the shocking suicide rate on India's hardscrabble farms. Since 1995, more than 290,000 farmers have killed themselves. Though that figure,...

-NewsMobile.in   Suicide rates in India are among the highest in the world. With 187,000 suicides per year, one-fifth of all global suicides occur in India. Farmer suicides are often reported in the media and are subject to a great deal of political debate. A recent study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine indicated farmer suicides might be disproportionate to the population as whole, reporting rural suicide rates were twice...

-The Hindustan Times Maharashtra: Vidarbha is an unforgiving place, parched, dry and restive. It is a place of waiting - for the rains, for dams, for a harvest that may never come. Lately, there's been a storm brewing in these 11 arid districts "All of Maharashtra is getting richer, but here in Vidarbha, everything is standing still," says Sachin Gawande, 30, a graduate and farmer from Risod town in Akola. "Ours remains...