Agrarian Distress and Farmer Suicides in North India

Lakhwinder Singh is Professor of Economics and Coordinator at the Centre for Development Economics and Innovation Studies, Punjabi University, India. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Yale University, USA, and Seoul National University, South Korea. Singh is the founding editor of Millennial Asia: An International Journal of Asian Studies. He has more than 50 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited books, and several authored and co-authored books to his credit. His recent book is Technology, Innovations and Economic Development (2015). Kesar Singh Bhangoo is Professor of Economics at the Centre for Research in Economic Change, Department of Economics, Punjabi University, India. He specializes in labour economics, especially industrial relations, trade unionism and other labour issues. His book Dynamics of Industrial Relations (1995) discusses industrial disputes, trade unions and the working and welfare conditions in the cotton textile industry. Rakesh Sharma is Indian Council of Social Science Research doctoral fellow at the Department of Economics, Punjabi University, India. He specializes in areas of national agricultural innovation systems and has handled several projects related to agrarian distress and rural economic development.

List of Abbreviations  List of tables  List of figures  Foreword  Preface  List of Contributors  1. Introduction  2. Perspectives on Agrarian Distress and Rural Suicide  3. Economic Development and Rural Distress in Punjab  4. Rural Households: Socio-Economic Characteristics  5. Determinants of Agrarian Distress in Punjab: Magnitude and Manifestation  6. A Village on Sale: Microscopic analysis of Rural Distress  7. Summary, Conclusions and Policy Suggestions References Appendices