-The Times of India As crops fail, banks don't deliver and the government falters, Mandya's farmers find themselves at the mercy of unscrupulous moneylenders Chenne Gowda has a Rs. 4 lakh albatross around his neck. The 55-year-old sugarcane farmer from Chikka maralli village in Pan davapura taluk, Mandya district, took the loan from private moneylenders but has no idea how he'll repay. His crop, on two acres, is wilting in the field...
More »SEARCH RESULT
India's deadly roads likely to figure in PM's Mann ki Baat on Sunday -Dipak K Dash
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Taking note of high number of deaths on Indian roads — over 1.41 lakh in 2014 — Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to talk about road safety issues in his next Mann ki Baat programme on Sunday. This is for the first time that the country's highest political executive would take up the issue; something that countries like France, United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden...
More »Socio Economic Caste Census: Has It Ignored Too Many Poor Households? -NC Saxena
-Economic and Political Weekly A survey to identify who the poor are and how many are actually poor is necessary if programmes and benefits targeted at the needy are to reach them. The Socio Economic Caste Census, of which partial results have been published, was intended to do this. Yet, even a cursory look at the figures indicates that they call for a willing suspension of disbelief. N C Saxena (naresh.saxena@gmail.com) was...
More »Funding crisis puts India's AIDS programme, and lives, at risk
-Reuters NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India's fight against AIDS is being jeopardized by a cut in social spending by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, with Health workers being laid off and programmes to prevent the spread of the deadly disease curtailed. With about 2.1 million people infected with HIV in 2013, India has the most cases in the Asia-Pacific, according to the World Health Organization, but new infections have fallen more than 20 percent...
More »Properly used, Jan Dhan Yojna could lessen farmers' suicides
-Hindustan Times For a country that is set to be ranked among the world’s top five economies over the next decade, India cannot afford to be counted as a home for impoverished farmers who are ending their lives because they do not have the money to return loans as small as Rs 10,000. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, 5,650 farmers committed suicide in India last year. Bankruptcy and...
More »