-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The national capital is not just battling a skewed sex ratio and women's safety, but also lagging behind in ensuring equality as far as family Planning is concerned. Data shows that the onus of family Planning predominantly rests with women. They account for 95% of sterilisations conducted at various family welfare centres in the state. What is even more worrisome is that the number of men...

-The Hindu Business Line A CAG audit shows that the Centre and State governments have been criminally remiss over disaster management The unprecedented and continuing rains that have broken a 100-year record and have wreaked havoc in Chennai for over a week, highlight both elaborate rescue and relief efforts as well as gaps in the existing policy on disaster Planning. It is true that swift deployment of the armed forces to evacuate...

-The Indian Express Unusually heavy rain has exposed the city’s broken urban Planning, revealed its stolen natural waterways, and exposed its tolerance of illegal construction. The catastrophic flooding in Chennai is the result of the heaviest rain in several decades, which forced authorities to release a massive 30,000 cusecs from the Chembarambakkam reservoir into the Adyar river over two days, causing it to flood its banks and submerge neighbourhoods on both...

-The Hindu Agriculture Ministry extends deadline by a month The Agriculture Ministry has extended by a month the deadline for States to utilise funds under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) for implementation of micro irrigation projects. Earlier, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had said that unutilised funds should be diverted to States that showed better utilisation. About Rs. 1,000 crore had been allocated to States for micro irrigation schemes to be...

-The Times of India Yet another deluge, coming close on the heels of the wettest November Chennai has seen in over a century, is something the city just could not cope with. Heavy rains on November 16 had exposed the appalling state of the civic infrastructure that was totally unprepared to handle the floods. Clogged and overflowing drains, inundated housing colonies, rotting garbage, electrocutions and roads caving in at many places...