In 2006-08, Maharashtra saw 12, 493 farm suicides. That is 85 per cent higher than the 6,745 suicides it recorded during 1997-1999. And the worst three-year period for any State, any time. The loan waiver year of 2008 saw 16,196 farm suicides in the country, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Compared to 2007, that’s a fall of just 436. As economist Professor K. Nagaraj who has worked in-depth on...

Post-independence policies have taken away all securities of the small farmer Historically, compared to other developing economies, India has had relatively smaller agricultural land-holdings. Mixed farming and animal tending was the backbone of small and marginal rain-fed agriculture. Diverse food crops along with animal produce ensured relatively balanced nutrition. But policies in independent India reduced diversity while increasing the market dependence of small farms. Small farmers became victims of policies favouring...

Paddy cultivation on over 1.50 lakh acres in three southern districts served by the Periyar river water through Vaigai dam has reached a critical situation with dwindling storage in Periyar and Vaigai reservoirs. Currently, the over 80-day standing crop in Madurai, Dindigul and Sivaganga districts is facing a shortage of around 650 mcft of water even after calculating an anticipated fresh flow into the Periyar dam of around 259 mcft. PWD...

The window of carbon trading has opened a new means of earning for those cutting down on their carbon footprints. Those contributing more to the emission of green house gases, purchase carbon credits earned by those who cut down on this front. This helps in achieving the end result of bringing down the global emission level to the desirable level. Bihar too is on way to join the club of...

India’s private sector banks are busy drawing up plans to attack public sector banks in their backyard—rural India—by opening hundreds of new branches. They don’t need to seek the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) nod any more to open branches in smaller towns and large villages, the so-called tier III to VI centres with population below 50,000. The Indian central bank has also permitted private and public sector banks to...