-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: Given the poll season, every political party's heart is beating for the farmer. While AAP's Arvind Kejriwal has brought out figures of farmer suicides in Gujarat, Narendra Modi has repeatedly lamented about such deaths under UPA regime. However, a look at government data on farmer suicides since 1995 (to 2012) shows that no party or politician has done anything for the farmer. In fact, BJP...

-The Times of India   RAJKOT: Farmers in Saurashtra are a worried lot following the unseasonal showers that were received on Sunday and Monday. Major damage to the harvested crop of wheat, cotton, chilly and coriander has been reported from the agriculture produce committee markets (APMCs) across the region. The harvested crop lying in the open got spoilt by the rain and thunderstorm. The losses are estimated to be in crores. Even the...

A study by Jonathan Kennedy and Lawrence King, published in the Lancet journal Globalization and Health (2014) has found that liberalization of the agricultural sector in the early-1990s is responsible for the agrarian crisis and, therefore, farmers with certain socio-economic characteristics -- cash crops cultivators, with marginal landholdings, and debts-are particularly at risk of committing suicide. In short, the study detects that the differences in the structure of agricultural production explain...

-The Hindustan Times   Bhilwara, Rajasthan: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday asked the Government of Rajasthan to pay Rs. 50,000 as monetary relief to a woman, who gave birth to a baby by the roadside in Bhilwara, after the medical staff at the Community Health Centre refused to admit her. The Commission had taken up the cognizance of the matter on the basis of a complaint filed by a human...

-The Hindustan Times   London: Reinforcing claims of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, a new study by researchers at the University of Cambridge and University College London reveals that the state has high levels of cash crops but lowest levels of farmer suicide rates in India. The study, published in the journal Globalisation and Health, found that Kerala had the highest male suicide rate in India, and claims that there is a ‘suicide...