Even as the media celebrate the Mercedes Benz deal in the Marathwada region as a sign of “rural resurgence,” the latest data show that 17,368 farmers killed themselves in the year of the “resurgence.” When businessmen from Aurangabad in the backward Marathwada region bought 150 Mercedes Benz luxury cars worth Rs. 65 crore at one go in October, it grabbed media attention. The top public sector bank, State Bank of India,...

The retail prices of onions and tomato largely remained unchanged on Saturday although the price of garlic fell by up to Rs. 40 a kg, thanks to better supplies. It is expected that the availability of these essential items will improve in three weeks when the late kharif crop arrives in the market. According to reports from the four metros, onion prices remained stable at Rs. 50-60 a kg, while tomato...

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Saturday denied that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had sought his explanations on the rising prices of onions and other agricultural commodities. In a brief chat with the media persons on the sidelines of the two-day “Coop Core – 2010,” heralding the nationwide launch of the core banking solutions (CBS) for the urban cooperative banks, which began here on Saturday, Mr. Pawar said he too had...

Mandated to monitor the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights is planning social monitoring of the historic law that guarantees elementary education to children in the age group of 6-14. This is the first time that the law separates the implementing agency from the monitoring one. The basic premise of social monitoring is public participation in...

Barring a brief tiff with media persons near the sit-in site in Bharatpur, situation during the ongoing Gujjar agitation in rajasthan remained under control, police said on Thursday. There is no report of protest or further blockade from anywhere in the state, even as Gujjars continued to squat on the Delhi-Mumbai rail tracks on the fourth consecutive day demanding five per cent reservation, they said. Vehicular traffic is plying normally...