-The Business Standard Agrarian crisis in the state appears as much a failure of planning as the result of a shortage of rain On a dry and cloudless day this month, Balbir Krishna Ingde sat by the Ujjani Dam in the Krishna basin, one of Maharashtra's largest irrigation projects, and confronted the problem of scarcity amid presumed abundance. "The water is filling up the reservoir. If only they could release it into the...

-The Business Standard In a country where 35 to 40 per cent of food is not consumed, the government urgently needs to reduce wastage to an acceptable level By current estimates, India's total population will be similar to China's by 2028, 1.45 billion. By 2050, India's population is expected to reach 1.7 billion, which will then be equivalent to nearly that of China and the US combined. A fundamental question then...

-The Guardian Scares over lizard and worms in food highlight flaws in flagship programme as India struggles to reach most remote schools Karulihai (Madhya Pradesh): The dirt roads leading to the village of Karulihai in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh make for a bumpy ride. As clouds of dust settle on the windscreen, it's easy to miss the one-room school that stands in the middle of the field. Voices of children,...

-The Telegraph In her recent book, Green Wars, the environmental journalist Bahar Dutt, writes: "The editor of a leading media house, everytime I pitched a green story, would invariably complain: ‘Environmentalism is stalling growth; all I am interested in is double-digit growth for this country.'" The idea that environmental protection and economic progress are at odds is widely held among India's elite. It is shared by newspaper editors, economists, businessmen, and, not...

-The Hindu In 2009-10, 33% of PDS off-take of kerosene diverted for non-household use: report The findings of a confidential report, commissioned by the government and accessed exclusively by The Hindu, have revealed that allocated expenditures of social spending programmes are not reaching intended users and confirm leakages due to corruption. The capitation fees collected by private colleges, on management quota seats in professional courses, last year was around Rs 5,953 crore, the...