-The Hindu This could cause monsoon to spill over to October: Officials Australia’s weather bureau said the withering El Nino — among the strongest in history and responsible for two years of consecutive droughts and record summer temperatures in India — had ended. While that bodes well for the monsoon, weather officials in India said this could also be a precursor to floods during August and September and monsoon possibly spilling over...

-PTI It said that changes in settlement patterns, urbanisation and socio-economic status in Asia have increased exposure to climate extremes. United Nations: Nearly 40 million Indians will be at risk from rising sea levels by 2050, with people in Mumbai and Kolkata having the maximum exposure to coastal Flooding in future due to rapid urbanisation and economic growth, according to a UN environment report. The Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-6): Regional Assessments said that...

-DNA The draft National Policy on Women is a progressive document advocating legislative changes and gendered approaches. But will other ministries comply? The draft National Policy on Women, released by ministry of women and child development (WCD), is a progressive document in tune with the times but the challenge will be to bridge the gap between policy and implementation. There is considerable emphasis on the conditions of single women, migrants and the...

-Governance Now ... and of planning to counter it. Climate change and economic growth will worsen water shortage, says an MIT study. But there are solutions – even now One billion people will be facing severe water shortage in India and neighbouring areas by 2050 thanks to climate change and expansion of economic growth, according to a projection made by the researchers of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Their new study...

-Frontline.in The increase in the budgetary allocation for the MGNREGA is only marginal. The scheme helped lower the poverty level by 32 per cent between 2004-05 and 2011-12, but government support for it has been declining steadily. In the beginning, economists belonging to the Right and the Left were of the view that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was merely a populist measure. While the former believed...