-NDTV Raisen, Madhya Pradesh:&NBSp; A toilet scam has apparently been flourishing in Madhya Pradesh's Raisen district. This was the conclusion the state government came to, after disbursing nearly 1 crore over the last three years under the State's Samagra Swachta Abhiyaan, sources told NDTV. On paper the district has 4000 toilets -- only a fraction of them can be found on the ground. "The Sub Divisional Magistrate has served notices to 44 sarpanchs,...

-The Hindu Business Line New variant to generate electricity from cooking Greenway, a Mumbai-based start-up which produces eco-friendly and fuel-efficient biomass stoves, will build prototype units by July that can also generate 10 watt electricity from the cooking heat. Intended to be an alternative to harmful and inefficient traditional mud stoves, Greenway’s ‘smart stove’ claims 50 per cent fuel savings and 70 per cent reduction in smoke emission. It has been tested and...

-The Hindu Business Line Calls for restructuring Nafed for effective procurement of pulses, oilseeds &NBSp; Bengaluru: The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has made a pitch for encouraging water use efficiency in agriculture. As part of its non-price policy recommendations for kharif 2015-16, the crop advisory body has suggested that States fix quantitative ceilings on per hectare use of both water and electricity. The farm sector accounts for about 83 per cent...

-The Indian Express Information was collected on a range of parameters at the individual and household levels like occupation, education, disability, religion, SC/ST status and employment. Nearly one in every three rural households still have an uncertain source of income and continue to live in one-room kutcha houses, according to the findings of the first national Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC). Officials told The Indian Express that these households — 31.26 per...

&NBSp; If environmental degradation disturbs you and you are averse to reading technical manuals and copious volumes on the subject, there is some good news for you.&NBSp; &NBSp; A recently published book from Gene Campaign entitled Coping with Climate Change is doing the rounds among environmentalists, civil society activists, public servants and researchers. Edited by Dr. Suman Sahai, the book has been written in a coffee book style to make easy serious...