-The Indian Express Ministry cites ‘incomplete data’ as primary reason for low placement numbers. “Kaushal Bharat, Kushal Bharat” — it’s with this slogan that the government had launched its ambitious Skill India Mission in July last year, but the transformation from Kaushal to Kushal seems to be faltering at the last mile. While the government claimed to have trained twenty lakh people under its flagship Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), which works...

Situation alarming: More than one-third population hit by drought   The country is facing severe drought for the second consecutive year. Conservative estimates from official sources show that over a quarter of rural habitations are facing drinking water scarcity. Although both India Meteorological Department and Skymet have predicted a more than normal rainfall during June-September, 2016, the water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country has declined from 22 percent...

Till recently agricultural production in the current crop year was expected to be adversely affected by drought situation in more than 10 states, apart from hailstorms and excessive rainfall that happened in March. However, if one were to believe a recent forecast made by the Ministry of Agriculture, the overall foodgrain production in the country this crop year is anticipated to remain almost the same as last year. In 2014-15,...

Publicly available data collected and collated by the civil society organization DAKSH under the Rule of Law Project shows that in the 21 high courts of India, the average pendency of cases is over 3 years i.e. 1,141 days, as on 11 April, 2016. The oldest case in a high court has been pending since 1 January, 1958, which indicates the extent of delay in getting justice in India. The 21 high...

Like 2015, this year too unseasonal rainfall and hailstorm have taken the farmers by surprise. Recent media reports suggest that extreme weather event has damaged rabi crops in a number of states from north India. The Weekly Weather Report prepared for the week spanning 10-16 March, 2016, which was issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), shows that excessive rainfall was observed in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand,...