-India Water Portal As a solution to the water crisis, Mihir Shah Committee recommends constituting National Water Commission--a multidisciplinary organisation that will look into water management more holistically. The country’s water sector is going through a rough patch. From polluted water resources to increasing demand for water due to rising population and frequent droughts, there are many problems that plague the sector. The worst sufferers are farmers and this is evident...

-The Times of India Gurgaon: More than 6,000 trees have allegedly been axed in the ecologically sensitive Aravalis after the additional chief secretary (forest), in a written order, granted permission to clear the green cover spread across 52 acres of land. According to local villagers, six earthmovers felled the trees to clear the land near a private university in Faridabad within a few hours. "The work started on Saturday night and by...

-PTI New Delhi: The government has decided not to hike the prices of foodgrains sold under the food law via ration shops for one more year. Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), which was passed in 2013 during the previous UPA regime, there is a provision for revision of the issue prices of foodgrains every three years. At present, the government supplies highly subsidised foodgrains at Rs. 1-3/kg to over 81 crore...

-The Indian Express The Niti Aayog's report, submitted before the United Nations, acknowledges that anti-poverty programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) helped weaker sections of the society. Vindicating the UPA government’s stand on pulling people out of poverty, India’s Voluntary National Review Report on the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals to the United Nations has said that sustained growth of 8.3 per cent from 2004-05 to 2011-12,...

-The Indian Express India faces not just a farmers’ crisis, but a serious meltdown of farming families Amongst the images of agitating farmers in Madhya Pradesh, it was striking to see how many were youngsters dressed in jeans and shirts — they were clearly not all farmers, but also farmers’ sons, unhappy with jobless growth. We are facing not just a farmers’ crisis today, but also a crisis of farming families, whose...