Five States did manage a significant decline in the average number of farm suicides between 2003 and 2010. However, more States have reported increases over the same period. The television story was genuine and sensitive. At least 90 farmers, it said, had committed suicide in two months in Andhra Pradesh. These were cotton growers. Actually, last year, Andhra farmers killed themselves at the rate of 210 each month on average, according...

-The Times of India   Terming the government's attempt to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail as a miscalculation that lacked political consensus, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has warned that a looming slowdown needs urgent measures to remove supply side blockages. The former finance minister, who heads Parliament's standing committee on finance, said unlike in 2008, the government has no room to increase the fiscal deficit that is already above 5% while...

-The Times of India   Activist Swami Agnivesh on Saturday criticized Team Anna for provoking people against the Union Cabinet's decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail. At a school function at Jaipur, he said Anna Hazare and his team were making "factually incorrect and irresponsible statements". "Statements with factual mistakes are preventing people from engaging in a healthy debate. People opposing FDI should discuss rather than play around with the...

-The Times of India   A delegation of farmers from north India met commerce industry and textiles minister Anand Sharma on Saturday and backed the government's move to allow 51% foreign direct investment in the multi-brand retail sector. The farmers said the policy removes middleman and will bring better prices for the farmer's products. They said a progressive move that is expected to benefit the farm Economy should be supported. "As far as FDI...

-PTI   The United Nations has warned that the world is on the brink of another recession, projecting that global economic growth will slow down further in 2012 and even emerging powerhouses like India and China, which led the recovery last time, will get bogged down.  The UN 'World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012' report has cut the global growth forecast for next year to 2.6 per cent from 4 per cent in...