-The Indian Express The Amravati division comprising Amravati, Yavatmal, Akola, Buldana and Washim talukas are particularly affected, with only 427 tankers supplying drinking water. Nagpur: Delayed and deficient rains this season, coupled with a drinking water and agrarian crisis have left Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region in the lurch. The Amravati division comprising Amravati, Yavatmal, Akola, Buldana and Washim talukas are particularly affected, with only 427 tankers supplying drinking water. Prior to the arrival...

-The Hindu Many in Jharkhand have been denied food under the public distribution system as their ration cards have been cancelled in the mad rush for putting in place a digital system. While activists claim that some have died from starvation, the government denies this. Shiv Sahay Singh reports on the faulty PDS A few weeks before Kaleshwar Soren, 45, died, he sold the last of his belongings, a Palash tree, for...

-Newsclick.in “Our population today is around 136 crore. Where will you get food grains for them through zero budget farming? This is sheer madness.” There is an inherent seductive charm to the term zero budget natural farming, for it makes the arduous occupation of agriculture appear beguilingly simple, an economic proposition without any risk or even requirement of capital. Coined by the Vidarbha-based farmer, Subhash Palekar, who was bestowed with the Padma...

-Down to Earth The employment scheme generated 20.23 average working days in the state against the mandated 100 days, according to a Punjabi University report A high incidence of illiteracy, low levels of education, a major lack of awareness and dependence on Panchayat members and sarpanches have led the much-publicised Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to fail in Punjab. The scheme generated only 20.23 average days' employment a year...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: After a dry June, monsoon has made a great start in July. Average countrywide rainfall in the first 11 days of the month has been 24% above normal, which has helped reduce the overall monsoon deficit to almost a third, from 33% at the end of June to 12%. In what should boost sowing of kharif crops, all regions of the country, except the south, have...