-Economic and Political Weekly Agriculture cannot be revived without a different approach to water, soil, crops and research. For the second year in succession, rainfall in the monsoon season has been less than normal. As many as 302 out of the 640 districts in the country have been declared drought-hit and the impact of the drought is the severest in nine major states of south, central and east India. It is striking...

-Hindustan Times The whole society is culpable in Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s death but the focus should also be on why the media can be held responsible for this heart-wrenching case of suicide. Vemula wished to reach the stars and dreamt of becoming a Carl Sagan but became yet another victim of institutionalised discrimination based on caste. His death has turned into a livewire, sparking unseen levels of protest across India from...

-The Hindu Obesity and diabetes cases increase in urban areas; experts blame it on stress and faulty diet. Higher stress levels in rural India and faulty diet in cities have thrown up two most disturbing health concerns in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), the data for which was released on Wednesday. While obesity levels have shot up in the country since the last NFHS survey in 2005-06, the number of people...

-Livemint.com It’s time to look at the deleterious environmental impact of subsidies so as to attain correct pricing of resources A few days before Delhi’s odd-even rule—a road rationing scheme in which odd- and even-numbered cars were allowed to ply on roads on alternate days—was to be implemented, Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia appeared on a television channel to answer questions on the rule. During the show, Sisodia admitted that the...

-Hindustan Times A Dalit scholar at the University of Hyderabad killed himself on Sunday night, nearly two weeks after he and four other students were suspended by authorities and thrown out of the hostel, triggering charges of casteism. The students were on a protest strike in front of the hostel since the expulsion that followed an argument and scuffle between members of some campus groups and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. That strike has...