-The Indian Express The son said that after his father's death in 2010, the little produce from a small farm with the family lasted barely two-to-three months. Officials are also probing as to why the woman, or any other member of her family, was reportedly not getting any other government benefits. Ranchi: A 58-year-old woman allegedly died of starvation at a village under Dumri Block of Giridih district in Jharkhand. District officials...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar has reportedly struck down a proposal to increase from a paltry Rs 1,000 a month the honorarium for cooks-cum-helpers preparing midday meals. A cabinet note moved recently seeking extension of the scheme for three years from 2017 is silent on any increase in the wage of the 25 lakh workers, most of whom are single women or Widows. A note prepared by officials...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre is considering doubling the monthly pay of the country's 25 lakh midday meal cook-cum-helpers to Rs 2,000, but the unions say the proposed raise is too little. The cooks' current pay of Rs 1,000 - a fraction of the official minimum wages - has been static since 2009, with successive governments keeping a proposed hike pending for the past five years. Now, a year before the general...

-The Hindu Business Line Kota Neelima digs into farmer suicide cases to chronicle lives often labelled as collateral damage In last November, when All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, an umbrella organisation of around 190 farmer groups from across the country, organised a Kisan Mukti Sansad in Delhi, there was one event that moved almost everyone of thousands present there. About two dozens children of those farmers who had committed suicide in...

-IANS Farmer suicides have been taking place across India for years now, and studies of rural distress reveal the deeply-rooted, tenacious causes, such as lack of irrigation, fragmentation of land, unsuitability of seeds and inadequate sources of credit. Despite the democratically-elected governments that claim to represent a country where over half the population is dependent on farming, agriculture has been consistently ignored at a steep cost to farmers' lives. Remedies have been...