Farmer suicides decline in Karnataka due to Congress-led govt guarantees, friendly schemes: Report
Bengaluru: Karnataka has witnessed a significant drop in farmer suicides, from 922 in the year 2022-23 and 1,061 in 2023-24 to 346 cases in the current year (2024-25). This reduction in distress is attributed to delay in loan recovery, timely input subsidies for seeds and fertilisers, good rainfall, and state government's initiatives.
Karnataka has faced a heavy toll of farmer suicides over the past few years, with a total of 2,329 recorded since 2022 due to farm distress, largely driven by crop loss due to floods and drought, according to data sourced from the Revenue Department, as cited by Deccan Herald on Saturday.
In the last three years, districts such as Haveri (254 suicides), Mysuru (167 suicides), and Dharwad (148 suicides) have been hit badly, with alarming numbers also reported from Kalaburagi (142) and Belagavi (141).
Despite these unfortunate incidents, the state government has worked to alleviate the burden by clearing compensation for the majority of these cases. Of the 2,329 reported suicides, only 20 cases remain unresolved due to technical issues. In addition, families of farmers who die by suicide receive a compensation of Rs 5 lakh, with the spouse entitled to a monthly pension of Rs 2,000. Farmers who die due to accidents, such as snakebites, are compensated with Rs 2 lakh.
Krishna Byre Gowda, the state's Revenue Minister, pointed to five guarantee schemes launched by the Congress government, which have provided crucial economic support to rural communities and are believed to have played a key role in preventing suicides in Karnataka. He told DH the importance of the government’s directive to financial institutions, urging them to issue “caution” notices to defaulting farmers rather than seizing their properties.
The government had also advised the state level bankers' committee to be sympathetic towards defaulting farmers since crops in Belagavi, Gadag, Vijayapura and Dharwad had been affected by heavy rains. Gowda also said the co-operation department and other departments had kept a tight vigil on private lenders and financial institutions, who charge high interest rates, the report added.
Notably, Shivanand Patil, Minister for Agriculture Marketing and Sugar, told the news outlet that initiatives like the Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS), along with the timely release of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) along with the state's component for several crops like coconut, food grains including urad dal, green gram, sunflower and maize have also helped in preventing suicides.
Patil further noted that increasing the zero percent loan to farmers to Rs 5 lakh and offering up to Rs 15 lakh loans at 3 percent interest rate have reduced farmers' reliance on private lenders.
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India joins US-led strategic alliance 'Pax Silica'
New Delhi (PTI): India on Friday joined a US-led strategic alliance -- 'Pax Silica' -- that is aimed at building a resilient supply chain for critical minerals and artificial intelligence.
India signed a pact joining the coalition at a ceremony at the AI Impact Summit here.
The signing ceremony was attended by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and US envoy to India Sergio Gor among others.
Gor said Pax Silica is a coalition of capabilities.
"Pax Silica is a declaration that future belongs to those who build and when free people join forces," US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said.
The move comes amid efforts by the two sides to finalise the proposed trade deal and move forward on several other initiatives to solidify bilateral ties after a spell of severe strain in relations.
The Pax Silica initiative was launched in December last year to build a secure, resilient, and innovation-driven supply chain for critical minerals and artificial intelligence (AI).
The Pax Silica Summit was held in Washington on December 12 last year where partner nations signed the Pax Silica declaration.
The declaration lays out a shared vision of deep economic and technology cooperation across supply chains -- from raw materials through semiconductors and AI infrastructure -- and commitment to mutual prosperity and security.
The member nations of the Pax Silica included Australia, Greece, Israel, Japan, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Gor last month announced an invitation to New Delhi to join the strategic alliance. One of the key pillars of Pax Silica was to establish a durable economic order to drive AI-powered prosperity across partner nations.
"We recognise that a reliable supply chain is indispensable to our mutual economic security," according to the Pax Silica declaration.
"We also recognise that artificial intelligence (AI) represents a transformative force for our long-term prosperity and that trustworthy systems are essential to safeguarding our mutual security and prosperity," it said.
"We believe that economic value and growth will flow through and across all levels of the global AI supply chain, driving historic opportunity and demand for energy, critical minerals, manufacturing, technological hardware, infrastructure, and new markets not yet invented," it said.
