-Deccan Herald New Delhi: The number of honour killings has seen a whopping seven-fold increase from 28 in 2014 to 251 last year. Uttar Pradesh accounted for the majority of honour killings (168), followed by Gujarat (25) and Madhya Pradesh (14). While the country witnessed 251 cases of honour killings in 2015, another 135 lost their lives to witchcraft and a total of 24 were victims of child or human sacrifice. Even love affairs...

-Newslaundry.com A new study shows how both state and central governments flouted SC orders in drought hit states Thirty three crore people were affected in 10 states by the drought in 2015-16. However, despite Supreme Court orders to provide subsidised food grain and continue mid day meal scheme during summer holidays, the centre and the state governments failed to do so. The court’s order had come on May 13, during the Swaraj...

-ActionAid/ India Environment Portal Drought 2015-16 has affected more than 330 million people in more than 2.5 lakh villages of 266 districts from 11 states. It has had a devastating impact on people’s lives as it affected water availability, agriculture, livelihoods, food production and food SECurity, natural resources and also put a huge burden on exchequer. Drought 2015-16 — Lessons From Desolation: A citizen’s report on impact of drought and learnings...

-The Indian Express Farmers can install solar panels on their fields that can generate income in addition to regular crop agriculture. Of its several new initiatives, the Narendra Modi government has set out at least two very ambitious targets, which are also quantifiable. One is achieving 100 giga-watts (GW) of solar power generation capacity by the year 2022. The other is doubling farmers’ income — presumably in real terms — also by 2022,...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court’s verdict on the Singur land acquisition issue is a re-statement of first principles relating to the limitations of ‘eminent domain’. By quashing the entire land acquisition process done by the erstwhile Left Front government in West Bengal, the court has reiterated that the term ‘public purpose’ cannot be arbitrarily invoked to acquire land and hand it over to a private party. One of the two judges...