-Hindustan Times India’s June-September monsoon has been deficient so far and quite uneven in its spread, with the rain-bearing system entering a phase that will largely determine whether the country can escape a drought for the first time in six years.   Overall, rains have been 9% lower than normal, with sharper deficits in some areas. Rainfall during August-September, the remaining two months of the rainy season, would be poor at 84%, the...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Indian weaver is dismissed in high places as an embarrassing anachronism, despite demand for his or her skills and products. In the new millennium, globalisation and a mindless acquiescence to imported notions of a good life threaten to take over, even as the West looks East for better concepts of sustainable living. Analysing today's crisis in the handloom sector, plagued by low-cost imitations from power looms,...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes that the biggest losers of the deadlock over the Centre's land acquisition bill would be Bengal, Odisha and Bihar, sources close to him have said. Whether the bill is blocked or passed in a watered-down version, it will hobble his ambitions of bringing the eastern states on a par economically with the western states, they explained. If the Modi government fails to evolve a...

-PTI Patna: Bihar is the country's most flood-prone state with 73 per cent of its 94,163-sq.km area getting flooded annually, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said in Patna today. 76 per cent people of North Bihar are at risk of getting caught in floods, said Giriraj Amarnath, senior researcher and project lead of IWMI, who added that Index-based flood Insurance (IBFI) could prove to be a boon for the situation. Speaking at...

-PTI KOLKATA: flood situation in south Bengal districts remained grim on Monday after fresh water was released from different barrages, compounding the woes of over 37 lakh people in 12 affected districts. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who stayed at state secretariat Nabanna overnight to personally monitor the flood situation, would visit Habra and Ashoknagar areas of North 24 Parganas to monitor the relief and rescue operations there. "flood situation in the...