-The Economic Times blog Farmers, from Punjab in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south, have started agitations demanding farm loans be waived. The Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra governments have already considered it politically expedient to write them off. Some other states may follow the suit. However, such decisions are as misguided as they are misleading. Nonetheless, it will be a mistake to treat the agitations as a domino effect of...

-Livemint.com Farm loan waivers have been announced in Maharashtra and promised by PM Narendra Modi in Uttar Pradesh, then why should Haryana, another BJP state, be left behind, questions a farmer Kurukshetra/ New Delhi: Next to a sprawling mango orchard, a four-hour drive from the capital, birds peck on worms emerging from rotting potatoes heaped by the wayside. The shade of giant mango trees offers relief from the heat of this hot...

-The Hindu A big push on private investment is needed. But social harmony is also a prerequisite for faster growth The National Income numbers for 2016-17 have been released. What do they convey? What do they hold for the immediate future? Briefly, this is the picture. Recent revisions in the Index of Industrial Production and Wholesale Price Index do not alter the annual growth rates for the recent years. The differences are in...

-The Times of India Demands for loan write-offs being stonewalled by the government seems to be the primary reason driving the country's farm folk to protests that are periodically degenerating into violence. Additionally, the governments' unwillingness to increase the minimum support price (MSP) to check food-induced inflation that would impact voters, too, could be a factor. While UP government's decision on April 12 to announce loan waiver for the state's three crore farmers...

-Livemint.com Maharashtra farmers continue with their protests despite assurance from chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of a debt waiver by October New Delhi: The fifth day of the strike by protesting farmers in Maharashtra on Monday witnessed unprecedented visuals of milk tankers being ferried to state capital Mumbai under heavy police cover. Not long ago, before the monsoons arrived last year, rail wagons transporting water to severely drought-hit districts in the state were...