-The Third Pole Cities and villages in India will soon run out of potable water if current trends continue, warns senior water official India's groundwater tables are plunging at an alarming rate with reserves in some states dwindling to critical levels, according to the latest report from the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) - the apex body under the Ministry of Water Resources. Over 16% of the country's groundwater resources are ‘over-exploited' -...

-The Financial Express What's clear is it has helped few in its current form Activists have come down heavily on rural development minister Nitin Gadkari for attempting to restructure the MGNREGA by, among others, changing the mandatory amount reserved for labour; the number of districts that the scheme is to be used for is also to be reduced to just the needy ones. This has been done, the activists argue, to help...

-The Telegraph Cyclone Hudhud, which made landfall in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam around 11.30am on Sunday and unleashed massive rain and gale that left behind a trail of destruction, might prove beneficial for Jharkhand's rabi crops. According to Met officials, the cyclone, which crossed Andhra coast with wind speed of 195-200kmph this afternoon, is likely to trigger heavy rain in some parts of Jharkhand on Monday and Tuesday. Even though farmers are bracing for...

-DNA Yavatmal (Maharashtra): As another election approaches Bothbodan village near Yavatmal tries to confront its own grim future. Two elections have gone by after Vinod Rathod, a cotton farmer in the village committed suicide on January 25, 2003. It was one of the first farmer suicides in the region that sparked off a fate of such suicides which have continued to shock the country and reflects the sorry state of cotton farmers...

-Down to Earth Ministry of rural development will channelise MPs' funds through different schemes for Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to restructure the existing Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme in a holistic way. He launched the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) on Saturday, under which2,379 model villages will be developed across the country in the next five years. There are 793 Members of Parliament...