Farmers in Maharashtra's cotton bowl, Yavatmal, have requested official permission to cultivate 'ganja' due to their ongoing debt and poor returns from conventional crops. The farmers, affiliated with the Shetkari Sangathana, handed over a memorandum to the Amravati divisional commissioner, highlighting their plight. The divisional commissioner will forward the demand to the state government.
The evolution of income in India from 2014–19 is analysed, and it is found that the lower end of the income distribution has experienced significant losses the bottom ventile shows not only a decline in income share of ~41% but also a negative real average income growth of -5.5% per annum. Further investigating the composition of this part of the distribution using rural and