Firstpost Editor's Picks: Farm crisis in Maharashtra, Xi Jinping's India visit, National Tennis Championships 2019; today's must-read stories

Maharashtra Assembly election: Marathwada, Vidarbha battle farm crisis, but most willing to give Fadnavis-led govt second chance While farmers in Maharashtra’s Latur are particularly worried due to the deficient rainfall, cultivators in other districts in Marathwada and Vidarbha also have cause for concern. Many of them expressed complaints about low prices for crops such as sugarcane, tur and soybean.The grim state of agriculture in these regions could well have led to a surge of discontent against the BJP-Shiv Sena government in the state. However, that does not appear to be the case. **Shadow of Pakistan looms large over this week's 'informal summit' between Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping** Pakistan has been the most convenient tool in the hands of the Communist rulers of China to create myriad security challenges for India. Taking advantage of the lack of global consensus on defining terrorism since one person’s ’terrorist’ is often regarded another person’s ‘freedom fighter’, Pakistan has been waging consistent asymmetrical warfare against India for the past few decades. **With consumer confidence at six-year low, government has few excuses left not to go in for a personal tax cut** Lower consumer confidence means lower spending by households on goods and services. Consumer confidence declined to a six-year low in September as sentiment on the overall economic conditions and employment availability expectations remained negative among households, according to a survey conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). **National Tennis Championships 2019: Living tournament to tournament, Niki Poonacha scores big pay cheque with maiden title** For Niki Poonacha life goes tournament to tournament, looking two weeks ahead, pay cheque to pay cheque. Figuring out flights, onward travel, accommodation, practice courts and then grinding it out on the court to extend stay for longer. This is the life of a tennis player who is trying to make his way up the ladder. **_Chintu ka Birthday_ movie review: A generous and life-affirming tale of an ordinary family in an extraordinary situation** From its very outset, Chintu ka Birthday — winner of the Viewer’s Choice Award at the recently concluded Jagran Film Festival — is a writer’s film. We witness a day in the life of an Indian emigrant family in Baghdad unfold under the shadow of war, through a screenplay that is meticulously calibrated to hit the crests and troughs of emotion at the right moment.