Basmati paddy prices are expected to touch their highest level of Rs 3,400 per quintal during the forthcoming harvesting season, says a research report. The prices of traditional Basmati paddy are in the range of Rs 2,650—3,350 per quintal this month, and are expected to be Rs 2,500—3,200 per quintal in November. In December, however, they will go up to Rs 2,700—3,400 per quintal, depending on the varieties, the report said. The forecast...

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, since 2003, one Indian farmer has committed suicide every 30 minutes. In 2008, 16,196 farmers took their own lives, bringing the total number of farmer suicides in India between 1997 and 2008 to 199,132. (Significantly, P. Sainath is of the opinion that like all government data, these figures too are unreliable. For when women farmhands kill themselves, their deaths are not enlisted as...

Centre pressures States to lift additional allocation The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has reiterated its demand for a universal public distribution system with a minimum allocation of 35 kg of grain at Rs. 2 a kg. A two-day meeting of the party's Polit Bureau, which concluded here on Tuesday, said the Central government had ignored the Supreme Court's directive to distribute, free of cost, the huge stocks of grain among the...

Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has charged the Centre with formulating economic policies which had allegedly widened the divide between poor and rich. “In the last ten years, the poor became poorer and rich became richer due to the liberal economic policy of the UPA government. The women are the worst affected as they suffer from malnutrition and anaemia,” she said. While addressing Ganatantrik Nari Samiti, the...

The Centre was not releasing Rs 1,700 crore in NREGA funds to West bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed today. "Despite placing full account for expenditure under the NREGA scheme in the state, the central government is yet to give Rs 1,700 crore," Bhattacharjee told a panchayat workers' rally here. "They are giving Rs 100 crore or Rs 150 crore in phases, but have withheld the main amount," he said. Ministers of state...