-The Hindu     Paddy cultivation is no longer lucrative in Kanyakumari district Kanyakumari: The fertile rice bowl of erstwhile Travancore, now part of Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, is gripped by a serious economic and ecological crisis. The emerald green paddy fields, banana and coconut groves in the backdrop of the Western Ghats, and irrigated by hundreds of water bodies may soon fade into a neglected prized painting, if urgent measures are not taken, warn...

-The Indian Express We have achieved close to universal enrolment. Now the focus should turn to the quality of education. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 states that every child in India has a right to a full-time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school that satisfies certain essential norms and standards. Even a cursory reading of the law indicates that it...

-The Business Standard   This report believes in demanding more, and cares little for inflation. It could have kept budgetary constraints in better focus and thrown more light on carbon-reducing innovations Fans of Rakesh Mohan reports will love this leviathan of a report. With 1,220 pages spread over three volumes, the report of the National Transport Policy Development Committee takes at least a week's effort to read. The analysis is in the second...

-Live Mint Inefficient government relief is reason to allow access to alternatives The increased probability of an El Nino weather pattern has already begun to rustle up fears about how a bad monsoon could hurt a sluggish Indian economy. The concerns are valid even though the economy is less dependent on agriculture than before and reservoir levels this summer are quite comfortable. The lessons of previous El Nino episodes in 2002...

-PTI Washington: One third of the world may be at increased risk of drought by 2100 as warmer temperatures wring more moisture from the soil, a new study has warned. Increasing heat is expected to extend dry conditions to far more farmland and cities by the end of the century than changes in rainfall alone, researchers said. Much of concern about future drought under global warming has focused on rainfall projections, but higher...