-The Economic Times BENGALURU: As the central government devolves more fiscal freedom to the states, they seem to be cutting allocations to social sectors, especially agriculture and allied areas in response, according to the initial findings of a study. The Narendra Modi administration wants to empower states further as part of a push toward cooperative federalism. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's February budget cut allocations to the states by more than half in...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union agriculture ministry is probing the circumstances under which a senior government scientist purportedly tried to malign vaccines used to protect livestock from foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks that can threaten India's milk yields. An expert panel from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research has told the agriculture ministry that Bhoj Raj Singh, a microbiologist at an ICAR research centre, has "caused damage" to the reputation of India's foot-and-mouth...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: As the death toll in the current heat wave crossed the 2,000 mark, this has become the fifth deadliest ever heatwave in the world and the second deadliest in India, according to an international database of disasters. Weathermen are predicting that there are a few more days left in the ongoing heatwave which has killed the most number of people in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana, while...

-Down to Earth Telangana and Andhra Pradesh could take cue from the state government on reducing number of heat stroke deaths In May, 1998 when I was travelling in Odisha, hospitals reported 2,042 deaths due to heat stroke across the state, right from the coastal cities to western regions. A doctor posted at a government hospital in the coastal town of Kendrapara said, “I have counted more deaths than births in a week....

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: The steep rise in sunstroke deaths in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is the result of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation index in the two states that stands at a critically high figure of 12. This has now come to the fore, courtesy data released by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). The ultraviolet index or UV index is the standard measurement across the world used to understand the strength...