-The Times of India ATRI/ WAZIRGANJ (Gaya): For 50-year-old landless farmer Ramchandra Yadav, alias Sadhuji, voting is the last thing on his mind, as he looks at his dry farm in Tetua village in the Atri assembly segment. All he can think of is how he will make ends meet, because this season's harvest will be extremely poor due to the depleted monsoon in Gaya and in many other parts of...

-The Hindu Kutalapalli in Anantapur district has more borewells per capita than any other village in the world. All but three of them are dry   It's as if the entire village has become poor by just drilling borewells.-B. Venkat Reddy, farmer    KUTALAPALLI (Telengana): Welcome to Kutalapalli village in Nallamada mandal, once famous for its quality raw silk. Once upon a time, this village amidst two hills had ample water for mulberry cultivation. Cut...

-Economic and Political Weekly A categorical distinction is facing rough weather--that between urban and rural. If we take just agriculture, there is so much of the outside world that comes in not just as external markets but as external inputs. Further, many of our villages barely qualify as rural if we were to take occupation alone. So the earlier line that separated the farmer from the worker in towns is slowly...

-The Indian Express The debate on the land acquisition bill and the tragic suicide of a farmer in Delhi compel us to reflect on a theme of enduring significance: the role of agriculture and farmers in development. What has the historical experience all over the world been? How is India’s agrarian narrative different — or identical? What can India learn from international experience? Many years ago, I wrote a book, Democracy, Development...

-The Hindu Business Line Unlike in the 1970s, the moral outrage over glaring differences has given way to an aspirational ethos For those who have lived in Indian cities long enough, it is difficult to miss the remarkable change in people's tolerance of economic inequality. Back in the 1970s, economic inequality was a major part of the urban discourse. The various dimensions of inequality dominated coffee house discussions, theatre and even popular cinema, contributing...