-THe Telegraph sugarcane labour contractors run a system that discriminates against women by appearing to be gender-neutral After all, it is not genital mutilation. Or vagina sealing. Those are some of the agonizing traditional rituals for girls in various countries intended to make them attractive to men and sexually faithful to their husbands. Attempts to put an end to these practices began in the 1970s, and the United Nations requested healthcare workers...

-Mongabay.com * The Marathwada region in Maharashtra is in the midst of another drought. While most of the area is dry, some villages practising watershed development are surprisingly green. * In the absence of political interventions some villages are going into self-help mode. Villagers allege vested interests in ‘man-made’ drought. * Lack of policy changes and political will have also been blamed for current situation. * Meena Menon travelled extensively through the drought-hit districts...

-The Indian Express Potato is a major crop in Agra, grown in 57,879 hectares of the district (2017-18 data) that includes both Agra and Fatehpur Sikri. The tuber is also extensively cultivated in Hathras (46,333 hectares) and Aligarh (23,332). Agra, Fatehpur Sikri: If it was ganna (sugarcane) in the first, it’s aloo (potato) that could be decisive in at least four of the eight Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh voting...

-The Hindu Business Line Drought conditions in peninsular India highlight familiar policy failures Recent BusinessLine reports have highlighted the harrowing conditions of water scarcity in peninsular India, with the monsoon still about three months away. Scientists and specialists have observed that 40 per cent of the country’s area is reeling under drought, of which 16-17 per cent is severe. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and Gujarat are in a...

-Scroll.in Ahead of polls, despite the dire situation, there is neither work under employment guarantee scheme nor any cattle camps, fodder depots for livestock. The irony is unmistakable. In the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, which is in the grip of arguably the worst drought since 1972, what stands out is hectic road construction. En route from Jalna to Ambad, a massive machine lays out a spanking new concrete road. Meanwhile, across the...