-The Indian Express Extended dry spell hits rabi plantings on top of failed kharif crop Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh, an agricultural success story of the past decade, is bracing itself for a rough time this year, with deficient rains resulting in the failure of the kharif crop and also putting a question market over sowing in the ongoing rabi season. The state, in recent times, had emerged as the country’s second largest contributor of...

-The Economic Times Blog Two apparently unrelated events — a sharp fall in factory output growth and a spike in consumer price inflation —point to deep problems underlying the economy. September industry growth fell to 3.6%, the lowest in four months. Meanwhile, the consumer price index (CPI) went up to 5% in October, higher than the consensus estimate of 4.8%, headed north for the third successive month. The rise in prices is driven...

-The Indian Express Government cannot afford to wait any longer to address the building agricultural distress. The government and the political class seem oblivious to a deepening farm crisis, resulting from back-to-back monsoon failures and falling crop prices. One indicator of the growing agrarian distress is farmer suicides, no longer a phenomenon confined to Vidarbha or Telangana. The current year has seen farmers even in states like Karnataka, Odisha and Madhya...

-Scroll.in While Punjab looks to rescue its cotton farmers, a dozen suicides are reported from MP due the failure of a crop that once brought unprecedented prosperity to its farming community. Hailed three decades ago as a miracle crop that brought about unprecedented prosperity to millions of Madhya Pradesh farmers, soyabean has turned into a fatal cause of agrarian distress in the state. Over a dozen debt-ridden farmers have either committed suicide...

Inclusive Media for Change invites applications from media persons in English and Hindi for Inclusive Media - UNDP Fellowships 2015. The Fellowships are given to increase and sharpen media coverage of rural distress/ development and the issues of the marginalized people. The fellowships are aimed at promoting democratic social change, particularly through empowerment, participation, good governance and better understanding about media and the marginalised. The ideal candidates would be willing to...