-The Times of India AGRA: The Uttar Pradesh mid-day meal authority's decision to extend the vital service to students of 58 drought-hit districts even during the summer vacation has hit an unlikely roadblock: teachers. This in essence jeopardizes the well-being of lakhs of school-going children in districts declared 'drought-hit' in 2014. Many of these regions also bore the brunt of unseasonal rains in March, sparking a spate of suicides. The opposition, if...

-PTI MUMBAI: Although India is set to become water scarce country by 2025 due to demand-supply mis-match, the water sector is expected to see investment of USD 13 billion from overseas players in the next few years, a new study has said. "India's demand for water is expected to exceed all current sources of supply and the country is set to become water scarce country by 2025. "With increasing household income and increasing...

-The Hindu The growth-at-all-cost mantra has left a vast majority of people impoverished. If the first year of the BJP government is any indication, its five-year stint may turn out to be the worst period for India’s environment and ecosystem-dependent people since the 1980s. This is saying a lot, given that none of the previous governments has been particularly sensitive to issues of fresh air and water, productive soil, healthy forests and grasslands....

-The Indian Express Poorly designed policies are largely to blame for farm distress Successive governments have transformed an unevenly prosperous rural society to one which is evenly distressed. Small and marginal farmers now feel worse off than the landless. Most suicides have taken place in the families of such farmers, especially those with no source of non-farm income. For the sense of desperation that now pervades rural India, all political parties are...

-UCANews.com Some farmers mull abandoning generations of farming for more reliable jobs Devinder Bhardwaj was hoping for a bumper crop on his modest four-acre (1.6 hectare) plot of land. The profits from selling his wheat in the market, he hoped, would provide a much-needed injection to his family’s savings. But this year, unseasonal rains and hailstorms washed away his plans. “The whole crop was under water due to the rains. Not even a...