-The Hindustan Times   New Delhi: In August last year, the Delhi government launched a highly subsidised food scheme to provide cheap food grain to the most vulnerable households in the city. Seven months on, middleclass families with cars and an annual income above Rs. 1 lakh are also seeking to illegally benefit from the scheme. In phase 2 of the programme, Delhi's food and supplies department received 15.54 lakh applications (catering to...

-News-Medical.net   A new study has found that India's shocking rates of suicide are highest in areas with the most debt-ridden farmers who are clinging to tiny smallholdings - less than one hectare - and trying to grow 'cash crops', such as cotton and coffee, that are highly susceptible to global price fluctuations. The research supports a range of previous case studies that point to a crisis in key areas of India's agriculture...

-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...

A study by Jonathan Kennedy and Lawrence King, published in the Lancet journal Globalization and Health (2014) has found that liberalization of the agricultural sector in the early-1990s is responsible for the agrarian crisis and, therefore, farmers with certain socio-economic characteristics -- cash crops cultivators, with marginal landholdings, and debts-are particularly at risk of committing suicide. In short, the study detects that the differences in the structure of agricultural production explain...

-Live Mint     As a democracy matures, citizens become more willing to trust elected representatives to plan and take steps for the long-term growth and development One common complaint during this election has been that the election commission (EC) has to be consulted before the government and its regulatory agencies take any routine decision. Decisions relating to gas price hikes and bank licences all had to be cleared by the EC, whose over...