Situation alarming: More than one-third population hit by drought The country is facing severe drought for the second consecutive year. Conservative estimates from official sources show that over a quarter of rural habitations are facing drinking water scarcity. Although both India Meteorological Department and Skymet have predicted a more than normal rainfall during June-September, 2016, the water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country has declined from 22 percent...
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Explained: What tiger numbers really say -Jay Mazoomdaar
-The Indian Express No, the tiger is not out of the woods. If numbers presented ahead of last week’s global tiger meet in New Delhi showed minor gains due to better counting methods, they also revealed massive losses. On April 11, a day before ministers of 13 tiger range countries assembled in New Delhi to pledge support for the big cat, a statement by the WWF-International and Global Tiger Forum claimed...
More »On paper, electrified villages — in reality, darkness -Samarth Bansal
-The Hindu The Centre claims to be fulfilling the Prime Minister’s plan for full rural electrification. But a close check of its own real-time data shows that the gap between official claims and ground reality is stark Haldu Khata, a village in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh, is one of the 7,008 villages that the government claims to have “electrified” in the last year, under the Modi government’s flagship scheme of rural...
More »Himachal makes schemes fertile for apple farming -Vijay C Roy & Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-Business Standard CM Virbhadra Singh recently announced a programme for developing varieties that require less chilling and can survive in low altitude areas as well Climate change is impacting India’s agriculture in varied ways. It has, for instance, cast a shadow over traditional apple cultivation in Himachal Pradesh (HP). HP’s apple belt has been predominantly spread across the districts of Shimla, Kinnaur, Kullu, Mandi, Chamba, Sirmaur and Lahaul-Spiti. These have seen a...
More »Budget expectations for rural sector
Amidst uncertainty over India's performance in terms of agricultural production and livelihood security of rural population, the Union Budget of 2016-17 will be presented by Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley on 29 February. Given the extent of drought in more than 10 states of India during 2015-16, it is expected that the NDA Government will allocate more resources for rejuvenating the rural sector. Since the country has seen two years of...
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