-TheWire.in A drop in rice export rates from the top exporter, India, due to the falling rupee also weighed on demand for the Vietnamese variety. Bengaluru: Rice export prices in India fell this week as the rupee weakened, with the drop in rates from the top exporter also weighing on demand for the Vietnamese variety. Rates for India’s 5% broken parboiled rice fell by $3 per tonne to $389-$393 per tonne this week. “Rupee...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Kerala did not have inundation maps or emergency action plans when waterworks engineers, responding to rising water levels, released the shutters of dams last week, but other states may be similarly vulnerable, a 2017 government audit report suggests. In the absence of detailed inundation maps or action plans, district authorities can warn local communities about an impending rise in water levels but without a clear idea of how...

-Hindustan Times The ecologist said extensive stone quarrying and mushrooming of high-rises as part of tourism, and illegal forest land acquisition by private parties are the major reasons for the recent floods in the state. Pune: Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, has described the floods in Kerala as a man-made disaster; a reaction to the illegal excavations, stone quarrying done...

-Hindustan Times Most of the city’s poor are migrants — they constitute about 33% of the population of Delhi — who come to the city attracted by the promise of a secure livelihood and better life. But their hopes and dreams are, more often than not, belied. A peek into how they get by New Delhi: Last month, Delhi, the second wealthiest city in the country — with a total wealth of...

-Livemint.com There is a low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal, but it would not have any effect on Kerala, says IMD New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) today said rainfall intensity in Kerala will reduce in the next two to three days. Kerala is not expected to receive heavy rainfall from 20 August, IMD’s additional director general Mrityunjay Mohapatra said, adding that received 170% more precipitation than the normal...