-The Indian Express Why assembly election verdicts should occasion a rethink on loan waivers, MSP raises The results of the elections to state assemblies should be a humbling experience for the BJP. Political pundits have started analysing the verdict, sINCe the reasons for the BJP’s defeat have important implications for the parliamentary election of 2019. One factor that is being flagged by analysts is farm distress. Farmers across the country are not...

Just a few days ahead of the Kisan Mukti March in Delhi NCR, the provisional results of the Agriculture Census 2015-16 became available in the public domain. The report, among other things, highlights the long-term problems affecting Indian agriculture INCluding fragmentation of land holdings (particularly the marginal and small ones) and shrinking average size of farm land. The provisional results of the latest Agriculture Census reveal that at the national level...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Delhi’s air quality remained ‘severe’ on Tuesday with the overall air quality index (AQI) rising further by the evening due to low wind speed, forcing agencies like the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) taskforce to carry out an emergency meeting. Delhi’s overall AQI which was classified at 403 (severe) on Monday, had risen to 413 on Tuesday and CPCB has issued directions to corporations and...

-The Indian Express “INComes” not rising, due to low crop prices and stagnating wages, has more than offset any “asset” gains in the recent period, which also probably explains the party’s heavy losses in the three states it ruled, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. New Delhi: The big rural economy takeaway for the BJP from the just-concluded assembly elections is that mere asset creation — building roads, houses and toilets or...

-The New Indian Express The consecutive droughts, with intermittent floods, have shown the impact that climate change can have on the lives of farmers. BENGALURU: Farmers in the state are preparing for one more round of showdown with the state government, even as Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy made a beginning to deliver on his promise of farm loan waiver by launching  the distribution of ‘Debt-free certificates.’ Though the programme has raised...