-Macroscan.org/ Frontline.in Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) launched in 2016 which is supplemented with Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS), have failed to deliver what it had promised. The number of farmers insured under this scheme has fallen and the claims paid to farmers has fallen from 98% to 61%. The scheme seems to be benefitting the insurance companies as there has been rise in gross premiums paid to...

-The Indian Express An IIT Delhi report offers important pointers on how to ensure a smooth drainage system in the capital using its natural waterways. This is the time of year when Delhiites suffer floods and often do not know what to do and who to blame, because the multiple government authorities are busy pointing fingers at each other. Monsoon used to be the season when my generation, as children, used to...

-Livemint.com India’s richest districts are situated along the western coastline while the pooRest are clustered in the easternmost parts of the country, shows analysis Mumbai: Where do the affluent in India live? That’s the million dollar question consumer goods firms, marketers, and analysts often struggle to answer because of patchy and unreliable data. For the first time in India, an official data source provides detailed data on household assets and consumer durables that...

-The Hindu Health Ministry attributes rise of incidence in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura to injecting drug users and unsafe sexual practices Kolkata: The good news is that there has been a steady decline in the number of HIV cases in India. The bad news is that Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura have emerged as the new hotspots for HIV, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Lok Sabha reply In response to a...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Three steps in quick succession have suggested that the BJP might be trying to build a social coalition of Dalits and Other Backward Classes to complement its traditional base among the upper castes in the run-up to the general election. On Thursday, the government managed to get a bill passed unanimously in the Lok Sabha to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes. Twenty-four hours earlier,...