-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has decided to put a blanket ban on several websites that allow users to share pornographic content. In an order dated June 13, department of telecom (DoT) has directed internet service providers (ISPs) to block 39 websites. Most of them are web forums, where internet users share images and URLs to download pornographic files. But some of these websites are also image hosts and...

Groundwater, which irrigates half of Indian agriculture and provides 85% of rural drinking consumption, is an increasingly scarce resource. There is a growing understanding that it must be approached as a common property resource for collective benefit. It is best understood and managed by those who live near them and use them rather than agencies who visit sporadically - that is the central premise of efforts around participatory groundwater management....

-The Hindu Could the Uttarakhand tragedy have been avoided, or at least minimised? There is no simple answer. Environmentalists describe the death and damage as a man-made disaster while geologists say the extent of destruction could have been far lesser if stricter regulations had been put in place and the authorities equipped to deal with the situation. Importantly, the events focus attention on the debate on the December 18, 2012 notification of the...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Rising temperatures on account of checked climate change would lead longer warm spells, heat extremes by as much as one-fifth of South Asia's land mass, and a higher incidence of excess rainfall. These are no longer distant risks according to the World Bank. By 2040, unprecedented heat could affect more than 5% of South Asia's land mass. And if efforts to counter rising temperatures are not...

-Outlook As the Manmohan Singh government makes evident its unfriendliness to villages, the nation hurtles towards disaster. It's a danger no one wants to face. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been trying for years to make us believe that agriculture is a vast marshland in which a huge population is stuck ankle- to neck-deep and it is his duty to rescue them. "Our salvation lies in moving people out of agriculture," he...