-PTI Many rivers in spate Dehradun: The death toll due to heavy rains in Uttarakhand rose to 14 on Saturday, while about ten rivers and rivulets were in spate across the State. Vehicle traffic was disrupted on several routes due to landslides. At least 15 people are still missing since Friday yesterday morning in Pithoragarh and Chamoli districts. The Met department has warned of heavy rains in isolated places in the State, especially in...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A month has gone by since the Supreme Court issued directions to tackle drought but it is "business as usual" for the Centre and the affected states, civil society organisations have said. Worse, government intervention is even less than what it used to be in colonial times, they said. A quarter of the country is drought-hit at present. On May 11, the apex court had pronounced the Centre guilty...

-India Today A gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal during the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984 had killed thousands and has been dubbed the biggest industrial disaster in the world. An online petition by Bhopal gas tragedy survivors and groups representing their cause has garnered more than 100,000 signatures which would compel the US government to issue a formal response to the petition. A gas leak from...

-Livemint.com New Delhi: Back from a walk through drought-affected parts of the country, Yogendra Yadav, political scientist and co-founder of non-profit Swaraj Abhiyan, speaks on state compliance of Supreme Court orders, a booming private water market in Marathwada, and why farmer movements are weakest at a time when agrarian distress is at its peak. Edited excerpts from an interview: * You just came back from a trip to Bundelkhand and Marathwada. What...

-Livemint.com The 69th meet of the World Health Assembly began with a call to address unprecedented challenges facing the global health sector Geneva: Despite carrying the highest disease burden in the world, the Narendra Modi government chose to send a small delegation to the World Health Assembly (WHA) that began on Monday, giving the country little say in the way the global health agenda is being set and inadequately reflecting its priorities,...