-Kafila.org With depressing regularity, the newspapers have been reporting farmers' suicides in many states. Recently, P Sainath wrote on BBC that around 296,438 farmers have committed suicide since 1995. He also mentions that cash crop cultivators of cotton, sugar cane, vanilla, pepper, groundnut etc account for the bulk of those suicides. According to a PIL heard by the Supreme Court in December 2014, around 3146 farmers in Maharashtra have committed suicide...
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Destigmatising suicide
-The Hindu Business Line Suicide is principally a mental health issue. This is why we must welcome its decriminalisation Our lawmakers need to be congratulated for setting aside their differences and acting in concert to remove one of the big colonial era blots on our statute books - Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, which treated attempted suicide as a crime. Since law and order is a State subject, a mere...
More »Drought fear looms large as country gets deficient rain
-Mail Today India is staring at the spectre of a possible drought as the progress of the monsoon has been abysmally slow, with authorities saying cumulative rainfall across the country has been 45 per cent below the average for this period. Reason: the El Nino effect is adversely affecting this year's monsoon, say weather experts. The India Meteorological Department (IMD), in its latest report, has highlighted the weak and delayed onset of...
More »The price of prosperity-Sravasti Datta
-The Hindu Candles in the Wind, a documentary film by Kavita Bahl and Nandan Saxena depicts the plight of Punjab's farmer widows Bangalore: Punjab is said to have benefitted the most from the Green Revolution. Documentary filmmakers Kavita Bahl and Nandan Saxena break this myth of prosperity in their award-winning film, Candles in the Wind. The film, which received a special mention at the 61st National Film Awards, shows how the State has...
More »Economist Thomas Piketty, professor at the Paris School of Economics interviewed by Subodh Varma
-The Times of India Is wealth trickling up instead of down? Yes, says rockstar economist Thomas Piketty whose new book proposing a wealth tax on the super rich has sparked off a firestorm. Excerpts from an exclusive interview... His book Capital in the Twenty-First Century has put the spotlight on Thomas Piketty, transforming the Paris School of Economics professor to global superstar. In these troubled times, he highlights a troubling issue:...
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