-The Economic Times Farmers are agitated. Loan waivers have not stemmed protests or farmer Suicides. This is a multidimensional problem and also a huge political opportunity for parties that can think constructively. Waiving loans is bad policy. It adds to the fiscal stress of states, straining under the electricity utility debt they have taken over. The states would undo the Centre’s hard-wrought fiscal discipline, scaring rating agencies. Waived loans bring little benefit to...

-The Times of India Continuing Suicides and intermittent protests by farmers across the country prompted the Supreme Court on Thursday to ask why the much publicised Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMBFY) had not provided relief to the hapless farmers. While the government said that it is the first year and they are ironing out the problems, a look at the details of this first year's implementation throws up more systemic...

-The Hindu "Your job is to take steps to prevent farmers’ Suicides and not go around distributing compensation after the Suicides", the Supreme Court told the Tamil Nadu government on Friday. The court said the “actual job” of the government is to “directly address the ground reality of farmers Suicides”. “Your approach has to be preventive and not compensatory,” a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and A.M. Khanwilkar told Additional Solicitor General P....

-NDTV The Supreme Court asked the Tamil Nadu government to install a process by which farmers can report misbehavior by bank officials while trying to make them pay up. New Delhi: The government's job is to prevent farmers from committing Suicide and not distribute compensation after they have died, the Supreme Court told Tamil Nadu in strong words today, asking it to ensure that no coercive action is taken against...

-The Tribune Punjab Govt looks other way, says no record of landless agri workers’ debt Chandigarh: While the Punjab Government dithers on providing debt relief to landless labourers, a new report suggests the number of Suicides committed by landless agricultural labourers due to debt is much higher than those by farmers in the state. The “census report” commissioned by the Punjab Government on rural Suicides takes into account incidences between 2010 and 2016...