-CaravanDaily.com Advocate Flavia Agnes, who has written extensively on women’s issues said that the court ban on triple talaq will prove ineffective as Muslim men may then start deserting their wives. She also accused the media of ignorance over the subject and suggested that they were playing into the hands of vested interests by only highlighting certain kind of reports related to Muslim women. KOLKATA: “Among all personal laws, I regard Muslim...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet Swachh Bharat initiative may be celebrating two years with much fanfare on Sunday but just a fifth of the respondents in a recent nationwide survey say local municipalities have improved garbage collection or cleanliness. The study found the hygiene has visibly improved in only four states – three of them ruled by the BJP while the rest of India reported marginal or no...

-The Telegraph Ahmedabad: Jignesh Mewani, 35, had a pleasant surprise when he returned home on Monday evening. A group of neighbours in the predominantly middle-class Dalit locality of Chwalnagar in Ahmedabad were waiting for him with flowers, near a small stage they had erected to felicitate their newfound "hero". The previous evening and through the day, they had watched the young Dalit activist on TV and read about him in newspapers, awestruck at...

-Nezine.com Cultivation of the Early Ahu varieties of rice is helping many farmers in Assam to make better earnings Assam: In these times of drought and scarcity in many parts of the country, improved rice varieties are bringing hope to farmers in the Nalbari district of Assam. What makes it so special is the short duration that it takes to harvest. In the villages of Sungarbari, Galdighla, Adabari in Nalbari district, farmers are...

-Livemint.com Except for Brahmaputra and Mahanadi, all river basins with a population of more than 20 million face water shortage for the major part of the year New Delhi: How much water does it take to cook a cup of rice? Recipe books would say two cups. Now consider this: It takes 2,173 litres of water to produce a kg of husked rice. That is a global average. Out of this,...