-The Hindu Agrarian distress has a cascading effect on all other businesses in the district ANANTAPUR (Andhra Pradesh): The year bygone, so far, has been one of sorrow for the poor of the district, with several of them committing suicide out of desperation and hopelessness. According to estimates of different political parties and social organisations, who have also done field level verification of the reports of suicides, no fewer than 150 suicides —...

-The Hindu Bench offers limited and unidimensional explanations to petitioners’ queries The Supreme Court judgment upholding the new Haryana panchayat law, which limits the voter’s freedom to choose his own candidate in a participatory democracy, offers limited and unidimensional explanations to questions and issues raised by parties in court. The judgment by a Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar does not explain why it considers the reasons for disqualification in Section 175 of...

-Economic and Political Weekly Why has pulse production stagnated despite measures to boost production being well known? This season, the prices of pulses (dals) have been on fire. According to the Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, the average retail price of red gram (tuar) doubled from around Rs 80 a kg in March 2015 to Rs 150–Rs 160 a kg in November 2015. What could...

-The Hindu In a bid to keep pulses price under check, that went sky-rocketing during past few months, the Centre has now decided to create buffer stock of pulses. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday gave its approval for creation of buffer stock of pulses. The buffer stock will be created in current year itself. In its meeting held here, the CCEA has approved procurement of about 50,000 ton pulses...

-Livemint.com Telangana 9th state to declare drought, adding to the agrarian crisis and posing a threat to the rural economy New Delhi: Telangana has declared a drought in parts of the state, becoming the ninth state this year to do so, highlighting the agrarian crisis that could cause a likely fall in the production of rain-fed crops such as pulses, oilseeds and cotton, and result in a further slowing of the...