-The Financial Express Air pollution in Delhi has reached extremely hazardous levels, with grave health consequences. Blame has been pinned on paddy stubble burning in neighbouring states of Haryana and Punjab – in fact, it is one of the main causes for the dangerous air quality index levels in the national capital and surrounding areas. This usually happens ahead of the winter season. Stubble burning is essentially a common practice followed...

-The Pioneer Diwali is four days away, and the state of Delhi’s air has gone to the dogs with the National Air Quality Index (NAQI) stating on Sunday that air pollution has spiked to severest “dark red”, strengthening arguments of many who claimed that the Supreme Court was “misled into believing that banning firecrackers during Diwali would clean city’s air”. The worsening pollution level substantiates their argument that the problem lies somewhere...

-Livemint.com We need a strategy to control air pollution across north India, and better monitoring is the first requirement From the debate over Arvind Kejriwal’s odd-even policy to outrage over poisonous post-Diwali smog, India’s public discourse on air pollution was centred in and around Delhi in 2016. This needs to change if we want to evolve an effective strategy to counter pollution. Before delving into the reasons for this, it might be...

-Livemint.com MGNREGS work days increased to 150 from 100; Rs.5,142 cr rurban project to create 300 smart village clusters New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Wednesday unveiled a package of measures to combat rural distress in the backdrop of a below-average monsoon rainfall. The Union cabinet decided to increase the number of days of employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) from the existing 100...

-The Indian Express Under the plan, the state governments will identify the clusters in accordance with the framework for implementation prepared by the Ministry of Rural Development. In a bid to transform rural areas to economically, socially and physically sustainable spaces, the Cabinet Wednesday approved the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM) with an outlay of Rs 5,142.08 crore to set up 300 rural clusters across the country by 2019-20. “The mission...