-The Tribune The agency-wise share indicates that agricultural credit dispensation in the country is heavily dependent on commercial banks and points towards the poor credit delivery capability of cooperative banks and regional rural banks. THE availability of finance is a key driver of progress in any sector. In the case of agriculture, access to adequate credit assumes vital significance since most of the agriculturists are small or marginal farmers. It has been...

-Foundation for Agrarian Studies In December 2020, in line with the Central Farm Laws, the Government of Karnataka passed an amendment to the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) Act, 1966. This amendment reduced the scope of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) by effectively ending their status as the only place (with some exceptions) where wholesale agricultural trade was permitted by law. Despite the three Central Farm Laws being...

Door-to-door and village-to-village surveys carried out by researchers of the Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana detected a total of 9,291 suicides that were committed by farmers in six districts of Punjab during the period from 2000 to 2018. Situated in the Malwa region of Punjab, which is known for cotton farming and the prevalence of cancer among its population, Sangrur (2,506) witnessed the highest number of...

-The Hindu Business Line In Maharashtra, farmers have no right to decide the price of their own produce When farmers like Suresh Solanke enter the premises of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) at Dharur in Beed district of Maharashtra, they are not sure what will happen to their produce. Like all other APMCs in the State, the APMC at Dharur is dominated by politicians, who act as directors and run the show...

-Scroll.in In a world of powerful spying tools, Indian democracy urgently needs checks on intelligence gathering. With allegations that opposition leaders, Union ministers, bureaucrats, an election commissioner and even a Supreme Court judge could have been spied on, the Pegasus spyware scandal points to one of the most egregious misuses of power in India’s history. The Israeli manufacturer of Pegasus insists that it only sells its weapons-grade spyware to governments, prompting allegations that...