The amount of rural reportage in the Indian media remains far too low, with even important stories such as those on farmer suicides tending to be ignored. One of the outspoken critics of this trend has been P Sainath, rural-affairs editor of The Hindu  and 2007 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. He was also the journalist who originally broke the story on...

Mohali/Chandigarh: *Govt refuses to give into concession demands*Deputy CM says demands unjustified*Balbir Singh Rajewal sits on hunger strike Even as the farmers from across the state on Monday launched an indefinite agitation to mount pressure on the state government to accept their demands — for a Financial Package to farmers and waiver of electricity bills—¿ the Punjab government refused to accept any of them. Hundreds of farmers from across the state descended...

The government has launched a relief package, which will directly address the problems of the coffee growers, especially the small growers. Commerce and industry minister today flagged off the implementation of the `Coffee Debt Relief Package, 2010' by distributing the first batch of certificates to those small coffee growers whose loans have been waived under this package. This is the first time that the Government of India has come forward with...

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Sunday demanded the central government declare the drought in West Bengal a national calamity and provide subsidies for writing off crop loans taken in the kharif season. With 11 of the 18 districts in the state already declared drought-affected, the water level has been receding in most of the south Bengal districts, making the peasants doubtful about how much proportion of the harvest can be...

KEY TRENDS   • Section 105 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which provides for excluding 13 Central legislation, including Land Acquisition (Mines) Act 1885, Atomic Energy Act, 1962, Railway Act 1989, National Highways Act 1956 and Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act, 1978, from its purview, has been amended for payment of compensation with rigours $ • The amendments have now...