-Down to Earth Most suicides among orchard farmers, say observers As many as 101 farmers have committed suicide in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra since the devastating hailstorms in March this year. This sudden spurt of suicides has raised concerns as to whether this arid region is heading for an agrarian crisis similar to that of Vidarbha. A whopping 71 suicides have been reported in the month of March 2014, close on the...

-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: An expert group of Planning Commission has pitched for major investments to reduce country's carbon footprint, saying India needs to invest $834 billion in nearly two decades to be firmly on low carbon and environment-friendly growth trajectory. It also stressed on use of renewable energy resources in big way, saying at least one third of power generation by 2030 must be fossil-fuel free. The group,...

-The Hindustan Times   The Aadhaar scheme, touted as ‘gamechanger' by the UPA government, ended up hurting the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls, said outgoing Union food and consumer affairs minister KV Thomas. "The Aadhaar initiative, and the objective of linking welfare schemes with it, didn't find favour with the people. The decision was not appreciated by voters," Thomas told HT on the eve of the Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday,...

-The Hindu   Ideological labels are likely to mislead by channelling the debate into issues of capitalism and socialism and detract from the real problem George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Having forgotten the license-permit-quota-raj that enveloped us from 1950 to 1980 and its ‘crony socialism,' many intellectuals, mediapersons and politicians have now discovered ‘crony capitalism.' The license raj consisted of stifling controls imposed on...

-Down to Earth 68th Round of National Sample Survey makes it amply clear that the wave of economic growth has not percolated down from the 0.003 per cent of population of ruling elite (as per Income Tax records, only 42,800 persons have taxable Income more than Rs 1 crore in India). 99.996 per cent population is spending between just Rs 25.90 and Rs 37.36 per capita per day (average MPCE) in...