-The Indian Express Government cannot afford to wait any longer to address the building agricultural distress. The government and the political class seem oblivious to a deepening farm crisis, resulting from back-to-back monsoon failures and falling crop prices. One indicator of the growing agrarian distress is farmer suicides, no longer a phenomenon confined to Vidarbha or Telangana. The current year has seen farmers even in states like Karnataka, Odisha and Madhya...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Maharashtra has been ranked fourth in the country by an index that measures how effectively states have transferred power to panchayats, more than two decades after the Constitution was amended to empower the institution. The rankings are part of a report titled 'How Effective is Devolution across Indian states' compiled by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) for the Panchayati Raj ministry. "The novelty of the...

-PTI MUMBAI: With an aim to provide relief to farmers in drought-hit areas, the Maharashtra Government will launch an amnesty scheme for power bills of water supply schemes. This 'Panipuravatha Sanjivani Yojana' will be implemented on the lines of Krishi Sanjivani Yojana, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said after the weekly cabinet meeting. The scheme will be launched with retrospective effect from July this year. In the first phase, the scheme will be launched...

-The Hindu Business Line Nine years after a landmark law empowering local communities, thousands of forest villages across India struggle to regain their traditional rights over resources and livelihoods Sundar Singh Rabha always carries a certain file folder. He holds it against himself in a hot tin car as it jangles along forest roads towards village Shalkumar, in a northern corner of West Bengal. His phone rings without respite. Every few minutes,...

-Livemint.com A total of 302 districts across India, nearly half of its districts, received deficit or scanty rainfall this year A total of 302 districts across India, nearly half of its districts, received deficit or scanty rainfall this year (at least 20% short of normal), according to India Meteorological Department. Yet, only 110 districts in five states—Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh—have been declared drought-hit by the state governments. States...