-NDTV Vidarbha, Maharashtra: FIRst the skies dried up, and then it rained heavily, too heavily for Ramesh Khamankar's cotton crop. In January, the cotton farmer from Maharashtra's Vidarbha region poisoned himself to death. The crisis that has engulfed this region this year was not just of bad weather, but also one which had its origins miles away from the ruined cotton fields of Vidarbha. Falling demand from China pushed down the...

-The Hindu Bengaluru: During the survey, enumerators will be asking 55 questions to the household and not all questions are mandatory to be answered. The FIRst caste census, which will be conducted across the State over the next 20 days, got underway on Saturday. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy flagged off the census in Bengaluru in the presence of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner M. Laxminarayana and Backward Classes Commissioner H. Kantharaj. Mr. Reddy...

-The Hindu Business Line It's a huge exercise in collective cleanliness which needs massive funding and human resources. Cosmetics won't work At FIRst glance, the government has not put its money where its mouth is. Just ₹2,625 crore have been provided for the Swachh Bharat Mission in the Budget. This is against ₹4,620 crore in 2014-15 and ₹3,500 crore the year before. The drop is puzzling till one looks at the Budget...

-Economic and Political Weekly Unlimited growth for prosperity in a fi nite planet is not possible. Ecological economists like Tim Jackson, Peter Victor, and others talk about prosperity without growth and highlight the need for greening the economy on a community scale. Using the "criteria of green economy enterprise" set by Jackson and Victor as a tool, this article looks at khadi production, India's community-level cloth production system. Sumanas Koulagi (k.sumanas@yahoo.in) is...

-Hindustan Times It took nearly 15 years for India's Right to Information Act (RTI) to finally become a law in 2005 after the late VP Singh (who was India's prime minister briefly) FIRst stressed the importance of a law that would give citizens the right to seek and get information. But now that landmark act could become toothless in far less time than that. If that happens, it will be a...