-The Indian Express The reality of rural distress is sinking in only now for policymakers. There can be no better illustration of the vagaries of the weather than Chennai’s streets being inundated with water and the second India-South Africa cricket test in Bangalore suffering washout due to rains, even as drought stalks much of the country. That really is the case today, with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, southern and coastal Karnataka, Rayalaseema...

-The Times of India VIJAYAWADA: Gradual decline in the overall cropped area casts a shadow over the state government's ambitious target of achieving double digit growth. Although Andhra Pradesh registered 12.52 per cent in the first quarter of 2015-16, it is quite unlikely that the target will become a reality in the long run, say experts and peasant leaders. Lending credence to such worries, agriculture and allied sectors (Rs 9,854 crore)...

-PTI Bhubaneswar (Odisha):  A total 107 blocks spread across 12 districts of Odisha are facing drought-like situation and suffered crop loss of 33 per cent or more, state Revenue and Disaster Management minister Bijayshree Routray today said. "Eye estimation reports so far received by the agriculture department show crop loss to the extent of 33 per cent and more in 2,57,930 hectare of crop land in 12 districts," Mr Routray told reporters. The...

-The Times of India BERLIN: India on Thursday submitted its 'climate action plan' to a UN body at Bonn in Germany, telling the world that the country would fight the climate change by taking energy efficiency route and reducing its 'emission intensity' (carbon emission per unit of GDP) substantially as well as increasing the share of clean energy by huge 40% in its total energy mix by the year 2030. The country,...

-The Hindu The Compensatory Afforestation Bill has raised significant money, which must be used to restore existing forests rather than on artificial plantations On Parliament’s wooden desks, a Bill is knocking. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill seeks to govern how forests will be raised, cut, and resurrected across India. It will be looking at how a fund of Rs. 38,000 crore, collected from cutting down forests, is to be used. Meant initially just...