A fresh wave of farmer suicides has been reported in several states, pushing families deeper into poverty. A coalition of farm-sector organisations said it had identified over 700 cases this year, but state government officials said they were still verifying the incidents. “Vidarbha in Maharashtra has emerged as the epicentre of farmer suicides again. There have been 680 suicides in just 6 districts in 2011,” said Kishor Tiwari of Vidarbha Jan...

-The Times of India   Fifty-one tigers have died in different states of India between January and December 5, 2011, according to statistics collated by a prominent wildlife NGO. A tigress shot dead outside Kaziranga Park in Assam on Monday is the latest in that list. Figures provided by Wildlife Protection Society of India show that 14 tigers perished in Uttarakhand, the highest in a single state. Karnataka takes the second place with...

Farmers are joining India Inc in mind, body and spirit. In a quiet revolution underway across the countryside, growers are setting up companies, replete with balance sheets, professional CEOs, board of directors, and income tax returns.  By pooling together the land and produce of their shareholders, these companies are signing lucrative deals with large retail chains, food companies and exporters keen to establish reliable supply chains. As many as 200 companies...

Declaring that the “Supreme Court will remain the Supreme Court, and cannot be converted into Parliament”, a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia today refused to “prematurely” intervene in the setting up of an independent regulator to monitor safety of nuclear plants, saying it was a policy decision, with a Bill already pending in the House. Efforts by advocate Prashant Bhushan, a Team Anna member, to...

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...