-The New Indian Express NEW DELHI: The unprecedented drought in 9 states — at the beginning of April itself — poses the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who recently launched several farmer-centric initiatives to ensure drought-proof agriculture in a bid to provide fresh impetus to the economy. As per a note submitted to the Prime Minister by a panel of secretaries, only 45 per cent area is irrigated in the...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The NITI Aayog will draw up schedules for key social sector programmes to counter the criticism that implementation has been slow even two years after the Narendra Modi government took over. The Aayog's Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant made several outcome-based presentations to the Prime Minister last month on sectors such as education, health, rural development and infrastructure. Timelines have been established to achieve progress in areas...

-Hindustan Times Mansa: As cases of suicide by farmers due to indebtedness continue to be reported in the district, there are hundreds of households in which children, who have lost their fathers, have inherited debt and accompanying distress. Ranjeet Singh, 35, a farmer from Kotdharmu village, ended his life in 2013 after he failed to repay the debt of his father who had been forced to incur it several years ago. His ailing...

-The Hindu Forging gram sabha resolutions clears the path to lucrative mining... Such fictions manufacture on file the legal requirement of villagers’ participation and consent. Over 12,000 villages across Odisha conserve their community forests, says a 2013 Odisha Jungle Manch study. In a visit last October to seven villages in Keonjhar district’s Gandhamardan range, Munda communities showed me their forest protection rosters. Each roster listed four villagers for every weekday to roam...

-Outlook Vigorous action can nullify the reasons that conspire to keep Dalits out of newsrooms In the ’50s, a foreign correspondent wrote to a renowned south Indian English daily, seeking comments on alleged discrimination against non-Brahmin journalists on its staff. Discrimination was out of the question, the paper clarified, as it never hired a non-Brahmin!  Over  60 years later, the media landscape has altered but the Indian newsroom is still the sanctuary...