-The Indian Express With the overall rainfall deficiency this monsoon tracing the pattern of 2009, when the country witnessed widespread drought over 350 districts, the government Friday said while the situation was a matter of concern, the news “agriculturally” wasn’t as bad as three years ago in most parts. “As of yesterday, the overall rainfall deficiency stood at 21 per cent. Parts of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Western Rajasthan and Gujarat remain regions of...

-The Times of India The government on Thursday launched an anti-ragging website helping students of universities, colleges and professional institutes lodge online complaints against ragging or harassment and seek faster response. The portal (www.antiragging.in) launched by HRD minister Kapil Sibal is also expected to maintain a database of students and will be connected to most universities by year-end. Sibal said, "Lot of young students have lost their lives, many loose their confidence...

-Reuters Monsoon rains continued below average in the past week, the weather office said today, keeping much of India's rain-fed areas still thirsty halfway through the June to September season. Monsoon rains were 20% below average in the week to July 25 after a 22% shortfall the previous week. But the rains improved over rice and soybean growing areas of eastern and central India, Data published on the weather office's website showed. A GoM...

-The Economic Times The labour ministry has set up a panel to look into discrepancies into its second annual employment and unemployment survey, which may have resulted in wide variation in performance of different states. "The committee will look at all aspects of the survey, including the methodology and the original field level Data used. It will also look out for processing errors," a labour ministry official told ET. The findings of the...

-The Indian Express In Raipur hospitals, a joke doing the rounds these days is: “Soon, someone will file an RTI to know the number of uteruses left in Chhattisgarh.” What has prompted it is, however, no joke. If a series of media reports in the state is to be believed, the uteruses of thousands of women have been removed in unnecessary operations. These reports talk of doctors cheating BPL families by encouraging...