-Livemint.com * At a time when rural incomes are sliding, the only existing safety net for the farmer is failing * High costs of reinsurance due to erratic weather, a spike in claims, political interference in crop loss estimation are reasons that forced some insurers to leave the business NEW DELHI: Santosh Kumar’s first brush with insurance left a bitter aftertaste. A farmer’s son, 26-year-old Kumar from Bihar’s Araria district felt betrayed when...

-The Indian Express In Idukki and Wayanad districts, where the situation is more severe, the loans availed up to August 31, 2018, are being considered by the commission for debt relief and in other districts it is March 31, 2014. Thiruvananthapuram: Around 40,000 marginal farmers in Kerala have approached the State Agricultural Debt Relief Commission in the last five months, seeking a waiver of loans they have taken from cooperative banks,...

-Livemint.com * Outdated ideas of constructing dams and embankments have increased monsoon floods in India * The attempt to control rivers is the result of a British colonial hangover, even though western countries are moving away from dams In 13 states of India this year, the monsoon appeared in the form of floods. The same happened in the Terai region of Nepal, Karachi and the Neelum valley area in Pakistan, several low-lying districts...

-TheThirdPole.net Of the many people struggling to prove their citizenship in the Indian state of Assam are thousands of climate refugees who have been displaced because their lands have been swept away by erosion or floods In Bhuragaon, a small village that lies 103 kilometres east of Guwahati, the capital of Assam in north-eastern India, Sabita Biswas worries about her grandchildren. The 70-year-old has submitted land ownership documents under her husband and...

-The Hindu Business Line The maximum crop damage was reported from Western Madhya Pradesh, which received 61 per cent surplus rains. Excess monsoon rains and the floods caused by them affected crops in many States, including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Punjab, according to a kharif crop damage report released by private weather forecaster Skymet on Tuesday.   While 40 to 50 per cent of soyabean crop has been hit in Madhya...