-India Today Taking a leap of unconventionality, a non-profit trust in collaboration with a local puja club based in north Kolkata will worship the very first transgender Durga idol on Panchami. In the 300-year-old history of Durga Puja in Bengal, this will the first time where devotees will worship a transgender Durga idol that has been fashioned after the androgynous form of Shiva and Parvati, Ardhanarishvara. Organised by the non-profit trust, Pratyay Gender...

-Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Programmes proliferate but vast majority of rural poor remain uncovered by social protection Rome: Social protection is emerging as a critical tool in the drive to eradicate hunger, yet the vast majority of the world's rural poor are yet to be covered. The State of Food and Agriculture 2015 published by FAO today finds that in poor countries, social protection schemes - such as cash transfers, school feeding...

-The Hindu Business Line Rejuvenated, clean and hygienic, they are a sustainable alternative to tube wells As 35-year-old Dharma Devi lowers her bucket into the ancient, stone well to draw drinking water for her family, she grumbles about the quality of the water body. “This one is closest to our fields, so we have to use it. But look at the overgrowth of plants around it and the filth that can fall...

Inclusive Media for Change invites applications from media persons in English and Hindi for Inclusive Media - UNDP Fellowships 2015. The Fellowships are given to increase and sharpen media coverage of rural distress/ development and the issues of the marginalized people. The fellowships are aimed at promoting democratic social change, particularly through empowerment, participation, good governance and better understanding about media and the marginalised. The ideal candidates would be willing to...

-Deccan Herald Twenty years, 35 villages and over 10 lakh surviving trees. Harshavardhan Sheelavant narrates a community initiative in Dharwad district that has converted hundreds of acres of fallow land into green orchards and transformed the lives of farmers. It was another monsoon day without rains. But the dry spell didn’t quench the spirit of residents of Belligatti village in Dharwad district who assembled near a small hillock on the outskirts of...