-The Hindu Index to provide data on level of pollutants in 10 cities across India Amid growing concerns over deteriorating air quality in India's major cities, the government on Monday launched the National Air Quality Index (AQI) that will put out real time data about the level of pollutants in the air and inform people about the possible impacts on health. Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the two-day conference of Environment...

-The Hindu Reviving the Farm Income Insurance Scheme could be the best tool for small and marginal farmers to fight falling prices in an increasingly globalised marketplace. Data from the recently held National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey show that close to 60 per cent of rural households are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. More than half of them are at risk of defaulting on their debts with either banks or...

-Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies World-renowned journalist P. Sainath has returned to Princeton to teach two courses, beginning this week, in the Program for South Asian Studies. The former rural affairs editor of The Hindu and award-winning "reporter" - he prefers the term to journalist - has devoted his career to telling the stories of India, uncovering the truth of social problems, rural affairs, poverty and the aftermath of...

-NDTV Lucknow: Unseasonal rain and hailstorm in March have brought Uttar Pradesh to the brink of an Agrarian crisis, affecting 25 of the state's 80 districts. Crop losses have dealt a particularly severe blow to landless farmers, who are emerging the invisible casualties of the Agrarian crisis. Unseasonal rain has destroyed crops on large tracts of farmland. And landless farmers, who usually till farmlands leased or rented from landowners, fall through...

-Frontline Outcomes of the patterns of growth induced by neoliberal economic reforms have increased the disproportionality between agricultural and non-agricultural growth, and with costs rising and prices not keeping pace, agriculture is becoming increasingly unviable. FARMERS across northern and central India-in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and elsewhere-are distressed. Unseasonal rains have damaged their standing crop and help from the government has been meagre and slow in coming. This, however, is...