-The Hindu Young victims require complicated surgeries under anaesthesia, many for Damage to their eyes. Srinagar: Eight-year-old Junaid Ahmad on Sunday became the latest victim of ‘targeted fire’ when he was shot at from close range by a pellet gun, resulting in extensive injuries to his chest. Junaid is the latest to figure in the grim statistics showing that 14 per cent of those injured by pellets since July 9 are below...

-PTI Rivers continue to flow in spate in Bihar; IAF aircraft drop food packets, medicines in flooded areas Heavy rain in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand since Friday claimed 27 lives, even as rivers continued to be in spate in Bihar. Fifteen deaths were reported in Madhya Pradesh since Friday evening as the Met department predicted more showers and sounded heavy downpour alert for some districts on Sunday. Three Indian Air Force aircraft dropped...

-The Hindu Mihir Shah on the importance of an integrated policy for groundwater and surface water Mihir Shah, water policy expert, member of the erstwhile Planning Commission and in recent months head of several committees tasked with reforming India’s water laws, says existing institutions are inadequate to address our water needs. Which is why, he says in an e-mail interview, India needs an overarching water commission. Excerpts: * The proposed National Water Commission...

-The Indian Express On Independence Day, we salute our freedom fighters. We also remember Lal Bahadur Shastri who gave us the slogan, jai jawan, jai kisan.   PM Modi needs to move from slogans to action to transform agriculture.   Atal Bihari Vajpayee expanded the slogan to jai jawan, jai kisan, jai vigyan. The present government has an array of slogans for the farmers. Prime Minister Modi has coined so many — swacchh bharat,...

Rising prices of dal: How to deal with it? The 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. In India, however, ordinary citizens are under enormous duress due to the skyrocketing prices of dal/ lentils since the last one year. The website of Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs shows that dal prices varied across places. For example, the...