-The Hindu Business Line Policy interventions, skill development enhance opportunities for farmers Agriculture, the largest livelihood generating activity, is fast transforming itself from a supply-driven to a demand-demand scenario. The discerning consumer (urban, rural and global) is increasingly demanding better quality, multiple choices, food safety and convenience. Diversification is the key to convene these changing demand patterns with supply, and more importantly, to act as an overall risk mitigant for the producer himself....

-The Hindu Business Line 75% of those committed suicide were the ones who took land on rent Hyderabad: With the Telangana farmers continuing to end their lives, farmers’ leaders have begun to delve deep into the agrarian crisis. A study to analyse the issue found that about 70-75 per cent of all those who committed suicide were tenant farmers. This means that about 1,125 out of the 1,500 suicides reported – after the State...

-The Hindu Traders say that basmati prices were expected to remain low this year as there had been an oversupply of the commodity in the international markets. Farmers of the aromatic, long-grain basmati rice in the grain bowl States of Punjab and Haryana are heading for yet another period of distress as the premium variety is fetching a price that is even below that of regular paddy. Sitting visibly distressed with his trolley...

-The Hindu Business Line How the Indian State metamorphosed from protector of the poor to facilitator of the private health industry If there is correlation between two incidents of the Central Government announcing cuts in the health budget and dengue patients being refused treatment in Delhi’s private hospitals, it is rarely discussed in the ongoing media debate on the subject. A new collection of researched essays edited by public health scholar Imrana...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Pharma companies may have to cough up huge penalties for unethical and illegal practices like offering freebies, gifts and foreign trips to doctors for pushing the sales of their products. The government is set to make mandatory the uniform code of conduct for pharmaceutical marketing practices, which have so far been voluntary. The department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) is working on a draft which will curb unethical...