Madhya Pradesh witnessed as many as 27,254 suicides between January 1, 2007 and January 31, 2011, but only 13 farmers took their lives due to debt or poverty during this period. Amid claims and counter-claims over suicides by debt-ridden farmers, the state government provided these figures to the Assembly in a written reply on Tuesday. The government claimed only one farmer took his life due to debt/poverty in 2009, two each...

In an attempt to deal with the use of black money in elections, the maximum poll expenditure for parliamentary constituencies has been increased to Rs 40 lakh and to Rs 16 lakh for assembly constituencies. Expenditure limit varies according to the size of states. On Wednesday, law ministry issued a notification amending the Conduct of Election Rules. At present, in big states, the upper spending limit in parliamentary constituency is Rs...

The farmers in the state, who had lost their crops to the recent rain and hailstorm, may not get any compensation from the present weather-based insurance scheme in the state as hailstorm is not covered under the policy. According to sources, the state has adopted the weather-based insurance in which the compensation is calculated on the basic parameters of temperature, rainfall and moisture levels. These parameters could be measured by...

Buoyed by the imminent scrapping of Reliance Industries-promoted Mumbai special economic zone, aggrieved farmers and activists are now gunning for seven other proposed SEZs in Maharashtra. Anti-SEZ groups will soon agitate to demand denotification of the fertile land earmarked for projects in the Konkan, western Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha. The activists got a shot in the arm on Friday when their four-year struggle forced the government to denotify 16,900 acres of land...

Investing around $1.3 trillion – or two per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) – into ten key sectors can kick-start a transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient 'green economy' that can also help reduce poverty, says a new United Nations report launched today. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) presented the report, “Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication,” to environment ministers from over 100 countries at...