-The Hindu District Mineral Foundations were set up to protect the interests of Adivasi communities who have borne the costs of mining. But they are flawed in their current form Through 2011-13, dogged investigators from the Justice M. B. Shah Commission on illegal mining toured the rust-red villages, forests and rivers of northern Odisha, and trawled through reams of official records including from the environment, minerals, railways, and revenue departments. They met...

-The Hindu BELAGAVI (Karnataka): Following directions from the State government to implement the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to create employment opportunities to the needy in the drought-affected areas of the State, the Zilla Panchayat has launched a special drive to extend the benefit of the scheme to the unskilled workers in the district. Since unemployment in villages is one of the direct impacts of natural calamities such as the...

-The Indian Express Villagers in Chikalthana say not more than one in every 20 wells in the vicinity has any water left. Not a single farmer in the village will earn anything from the field this kharif season. Parbhani/ Beed (Maharashtra): This summer, Meera Jadhav, 18, secured a first division in her Class XII board exams. Weeks later, her younger sister Suvarna, 16, got her Class X final results — over...

-PTI New Delhi: The spectre of a drought looms over large parts of the country with 40 per cent of its land mass receiving "deficient" rainfall. "As of today, 47 per cent of the country has witnessed normal rainfall, 40 per cent deficient and merely 13 per cent excess precipitation. The overall deficiency has increased to 12 per cent," India Meteorological Department said, adding with the southwest monsoon expected to start withdrawing...

-Hindustan Times Three years ago, when representatives from Sukhbir Agro approached farmers in Punjab proposing they sell their farm waste to the company to generate bio-energy, no one believed them. “They proposed to buy our waste… We didn’t believe them,” said Amolak Singh, a farmer. However, as the farmers slowly came around to the idea the green benefits of this move became apparent. Every November, farmers in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana and...