-Frontline.in Four years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of the Namami Gange project, the river remains as dirty as ever. WHILE in Varanasi to file his nomination papers for the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Narendra Modi, then the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial nominee, had declared with his characteristic bravado, “I have not come here on my own. I have been invited by mother Ganga.” He said it was his...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Kerala did not have inundation maps or emergency action plans when waterworks engineers, responding to rising water levels, released the shutters of dams last week, but other states may be similarly vulnerable, a 2017 government audit report suggests. In the absence of detailed inundation maps or action plans, district authorities can warn local communities about an impending rise in water levels but without a clear idea of how...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: The income of agricultural households, which account for nearly half the rural households in the country, surged to Rs 1,07,172 in 2015-16 at a annual compound growth rate (CAGR) of 12 per cent since 2012-13. According to a rural survey carried out by the National Bank for Agricultural & Rural Development (Nabard), while the average annual income levels of non-agricultural households in 2015-16 stood at Rs...

-IANS New Delhi: The CAG has picked several holes in the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) saying lack of planning and funds management resulted in incomplete works for providing safe drinking water to rural habitations, schools and anganwadis. In its audit report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said only 44 per cent of rural habitations, 85 per cent of schools and anganwadis were provided with...

-TheWire.in From rotten vegetables to frogs, the MDM in Uttar Pradesh has featured several unlikely ingredients. In a village in Chitrakoot district, while insects were the latest buzz, a severe dose of apathy appears to be the real cause of alarm. Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh: The website of the Uttar Pradesh Mid-Day Meal Authority (MDMA) proudly boasts of having won a gold trophy in “e-governance” for its innovative use of technology in...