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...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Several parents in northern India seeking treatment for children with congenital heart disorders appear to favour boys over girls, a team of cardiologists reported today, corroborating earlier findings that gender bias may be denying even life-saving health care to girls. The cardiologists at the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital in Ludhiana have said that even the promise of free treatment has not eroded the underlying gender bias among...

-The Indian Express A neat separation of poverty estimates and entitlements won’t pass muster. There was much hope about the work that Arvind Panagariya was mandated to do on the measurement of poverty. I, for one, have held from the 1980s that the official poverty line that emerged from a taskforce I chaired in 1976-77 should be shelved. Panagariya has reportedly suggested that the Tendulkar Committee’s report should be accepted for...

-The Times of India Blog Stepping Into 100th Birth Anniv Of MGR, We Recall How His Pathbreaking Nutritious Meal Project Was Conceived And Implemented July 1, 1982 was a turning point in the political history of modern Tamil Nadu, when M G Ramachandran, the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, ate a meal with primary school children in Pappakurichi village in Trichy district, marking the beginning of the chief minister’s nutritious noon...

Amidst the prevailing gloominess over agrarian crisis, a recently released report says that the growth rate of agricultural output in both India and China were the same during 2008-2013. The agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) of both these countries on an average grew at 3.3 percent per annum during that period. The latest available data from the 2016 Global Food Policy Report, however, indicates that the neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka...