Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar, India’s biggest rural retail chain by sales, which operates 230 stores across eight states and had seen good growth in the past two years, said it had seen a fall in rural demand in the past two to three months. A drop in prices of potatoes, onions and some other vegetables, leading to low realisation for farmers, and an increase in cost of fertiliser, are reasons for these...

-The Telegraph   A farmer in his mid-thirties killed himself in a Burdwan village early this morning, a mountain of debt driving him under after he was apparently forced to sell paddy to middlemen at a lower price. Tapas Majhi’s suicide comes at a time three Bengal agencies tasked with procuring paddy directly from farmers and mill owners have been able to meet just 10 per cent of their target because of lack...

Agriculture sector undergoes a historic change as livestock surpasses the economy of food grain Policy makers in India are finally acknowledging a structural shift in the agriculture sector they have been noticing for a decade. Economic contribution of livestock is today more than that of food grain crops. Traditionally, of the three components of the sector—crops, livestock and fisheries—crops drove the growth, and food grains are a major part of it....

States turn to dubious technology for saving girl child With the country’s child sex ratio hitting an all-time low—944 girls for every 1,000 boys—states are turning to a monitoring device to fix the imbalance. Public health activists say the device, called Silent Observer, is more hogwash than an answer. Silent Observer can be fitted into sonography machines to allow the authorities to monitor and record pre-natal ultrasound scans taken by doctors. It...

The Election Commission's crackdown on candidates using black money in electioneering has forced politicians to come up with innovative methods. Two ATM vans, belonging to two private banks, were seized with nearly Rs 13 crore cash in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh last week by Income Tax's flying squad, a part of which has remained unclaimed for the last four days. The EC has written to RBI to instruct the two large private...