-The Indian Express As many parts of the country reel under a back-to-back drought, Kavitha Iyer reports from the region that’s at the centre of the crisis. Weeks before hanging himself from a tree on his farm on June 1 this year, Kalyan Khomne, 55, read out a newspaper report to his son Shahdev. “It was about a farmer’s suicide in our taluka,” says 26-year-old Shahdev. His village, Nandurghat, and the nearby...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced that the government will not renew the controversial land acquisition ordinance that lapses on Monday and declared its readiness to incorporate any suggestions in the bill pending before Parliament. "We had issued an ordinance which lapses tomorrow (August 31). I have decided, let it lapse. We will not renew it," Modi said in his 'Mann ki Baat' radio broadcast. "It...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre tonight issued an executive order to continue better compensation and rehabilitation packages for land-losers, three days before an ordinance providing the increased benefits was to expire. The Congress likened the order, covering land acquired under 13 central laws, to "rubbing salt on Parliament". A government statement said Section 113 of the UPA-crafted Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, was...

-The Indian Express Sources said the fresh ordinance was likely to be in sync with the report set to be presented by the parliamentary panel. With the NDA government’s Land Acquisition (Amendment) Ordinance set to lapse on August 31, the government is likely to issue a fresh ordinance in order to accommodate the 13 legislations excluded under the 2013 law, while dropping a majority of key amendments brought in through its earlier...

-The Hindu Business Line Raw silk duty cut triggers sharp fall Bengaluru: Unable to deal with mounting debts amidst diminishing returns from his three-acre farm, Siddaramu, a sericulture farmer in his mid-fifties at Abburdoddi near Channapatna, committed suicide recently in his silkworm rearing house. The trigger for this unfortunate incident was the crash in silk cocoon prices and the issuance of recovery notice by the bank, says Chandramma, his wife. Other crops too failed Siddaramu,...