-The Asian Age It’s a huge story. And it’s not getting the kind of media attention it deserves. It’s a story about India’s farmers. It’s a story about the ongoing agrarian crisis in the country in the wake of two successive years of drought. If one looks only at the figures of growth of gross domestic product which tend to make headlines in financial publications, there’s no story for agriculture comprises...

-Civil Society Online Bhubaneswar: Laxman Goud, a 35-year-old farmer in Thakurpalli village in Komna block of Nuapada district of Odisha, used to lead a very simple life. He was a devoted follower of Mahima Dharma, a subaltern religion practised by underprivileged castes in Odisha. One morning, he took his life in desperation. He couldn’t repay Rs 19,000 he had borrowed from a local moneylender at 36 per cent interest. Goud had invested...

-The Hindu Business Line Yes, but it may not wholly make up for the drought-stricken kharif season Agriculture commodity supplies are erratic in India. They are more so now, due to a second consecutive year of below-normal monsoon, which has resulted in big setbacks to the kharif crop. Edelweiss Agri Research recently took up a nation-wide crop survey to estimate the sowing intentions for the upcoming rabi season. This, along with the...

-The Hindu Business Line Indian corporates are just settling in to the regime of mandatory spends on CSR activities. The Centre has so far been lenient and has allowed them to spend less than the required amount as long as they disclose the reason. Many companies, which have fallen short, have listed a variety of reasons for this short-fall. This varies from the need for more time to identifying the right CSR...

-The Hindu Bench offers limited and unidimensional explanations to petitioners’ queries The Supreme Court judgment upholding the new Haryana panchayat law, which limits the voter’s freedom to choose his own candidate in a participatory democracy, offers limited and unidimensional explanations to questions and issues raised by parties in court. The judgment by a Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar does not explain why it considers the reasons for disqualification in Section 175 of...