-Livemint.com No household in a drought affected area shall be denied grains even if they do not possess a ration card, says Supreme Court New Delhi: Coming down heavily on the centre and states for a delayed implementation of the National Food Security Act despite a protracted drought, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered that all households in drought-hit areas be supplied with highly subsidised foodgrains. No household in a drought affected...

-The Hindu The way forward may be to not rely only on dams, interlinked rivers, and borewell drilling — but to supplant these with effective water conservation, storage and groundwater recharge For the past one week, The Hindu has explored the multi-faceted crisis of water scarcity that has gripped India this summer, through a daily series titled ‘Last Drop’. The series sought to give our readers a comprehensive understanding of six critical...

-Livemint.com With food and water in short supply, farmers in Bundelkhand are leaving cattle to fend for themselves Mahoba (Uttar Pradesh)/New Delhi: Some time in March, Dhan Prasad Anuragi led his pregnant cow Kajal a couple of miles outside his village and abandoned her. The 55-year-old farmer, who lives in Balchaur village of Mahoba district in Uttar Pradesh, says he had no choice. He couldn’t afford to feed the cow and his only hope...

-The Financial Express In a drought period, its job-insurance function critical Never perhaps in its decade of existence has the rural employment guarantee programme —MGNREGA—been more relevant than it is now. After two weak monsoons, the critically low water levels in reservoirs have resulted in drought-like conditions in large parts of the country. Critics of the scheme would argue that even in its best days, the programme hasn’t accounted for more than...

-The Indian Express The suffering of millions does not create public outrage, much less government accountability. The people of India’s villages carry collective memories of centuries of calamitous losses of sometimes millions of lives in famines. Famines have been pushed into history, unarguably one of free India’s greatest accomplishments. But the same can’t be said about droughts, which continue to extract an enormous toll on human suffering. At least a third of the...