-BBC More than 20,000 housewives took their lives in India in 2014. This was the year when 5,650 farmers killed themselves in the country. So the number of suicides by housewives was over 250% more than the farmers. They also comprised 47% of the total female victims. Yet the high number of homemakers killing themselves doesn't make front page news in the way farmer suicides do, year after year. In fact, more than 20,000 housewives...

-Outlook Vigorous action can nullify the reasons that conspire to keep Dalits out of newsrooms In the ’50s, a foreign correspondent wrote to a renowned south Indian English daily, seeking comments on alleged discrimination against non-Brahmin journalists on its staff. Discrimination was out of the question, the paper clarified, as it never hired a non-Brahmin!  Over  60 years later, the media landscape has altered but the Indian newsroom is still the sanctuary...

-The Indian Express Substantial number of interest subvention scheme loans are diverted to non-agricultural uses. Government must switch to an income-support subsidy regime The Union budget for 2016-17 has provisioned Rs 15,000 crore on account of interest subvention for short-term agricultural credit, up by Rs 2,000 crore over the revised estimate for FY16. The mere shifting of this line item from the department of financial services to the department of agriculture...

-The Indian Express Jhargram: Even as people return, a steady out-migration, especially of agricultural labour and farmers, continues from the region that has seen poor rain for years now. Taralata Mahato (25) draws awed whispers from women of Jhambeda village in West Midnapore’s Jhargram block as the only one from the village in the police. Taralata lives in a pucca two-storey house with whitewashed walls and a huge cowshed — a palatial home...

-FirstPost.com Aurangabad/Latur: In recent times, the drought in Marathwada has been reported, discussed and debated, but all from a safe distance. News reports, television debates, social media commentary and even judicial pronouncements have been made regarding the situation. Firstpost reporters spent a fortnight travelling through the arid region and witnessed the devastating social, political and ecological impact of three years of drought. It’s not just the local economy, agriculture and rural structures...