-Hindustan Times Bhopal: In a 1957 Bollywood classic Naya Daur, man battles machine and prevails. But in the canal irrigated areas of Madhya Pradesh, manual labourers are losing to a combine harvester, a rapid harvesting machine. Combine harvesters that first made their appearance in the 1960s turned out to be more economical and efficient ways of harvesting crops and then on they began to challenge the manual labour. Now the situation has come...

-PTI AURANGABAD: The total number of farmers who committed suicide during the last three months in the eight districts of Marathwada region has crossed 200, official sources said here today. The main reason behind taking the extreme step is bankruptcy due to loans which cannot be repayed due to crops destroyed by natural calamities. Notably, last year, 510 farmers ended their lives. As of 2015, families of 105 farmers who ended their lives,...

-The Hindu Reviving the Farm Income Insurance Scheme could be the best tool for small and marginal farmers to fight falling prices in an increasingly globalised marketplace. Data from the recently held National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey show that close to 60 per cent of rural households are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. More than half of them are at risk of defaulting on their debts with either banks or...

-Hindustan Times Jhabua/Alirajpur: The poor tribal farmers ploughing the rocky surface of steep hillocks at a height of more than 700 feet in western Madhya Pradesh belie the state government's claims about making agriculture a profitable profession. Overcoming problems posed by the undulating terrain, rocks located barely six inches below the surface and the lack of irrigation facilities, the tribes people eke out a livelihood by growing maize, millet, urad, tuar and...

-The Hindu What makes public policy exciting and potentially inventive is the contested nature of the public sphere. It is anchored in a diversity of perspectives which challenges the dominance of one subject. India is a country full of paradoxes. The elite in the country are forward-looking; they emphasise the need for reskilling but they conduct all this with backward-looking institutions. An acute observer once said: "we want to be [a] knowledge...