-Livemint.com The government should put greater emphasis on behaviour change than construction of toilets In 2014, more than half of India’s population still practised open defecation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi set his government the goal of making the country open defecation-free in five years, by the 150th anniversary of M.K. Gandhi’s birthday in 2019, by launching the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA). Three years later, we are more than halfway into that period,...

-Hindustan Times With nearly 200 Durga Puja pandals immersing idols in the river in Delhi-NCR, Yamuna was choked with debris. The river water was clogged with plastic bags, flower petals and pooja material, besides metal structures Delhi: The Yamuna choked on debris and waste materials on Sunday, a day after idols from nearly 200 Durga Pujas pandals in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and surrounding areas made way to the designated ghats...

-Livemint.com The agriculture ministry has estimated foodgrain production at 134.7 million tonnes for the 2017-18 kharif crop season, 2.8% lower than last year New Delhi: Production of kharif crops this year is likely to be lower than last year, the agriculture ministry said in its first advance estimates, with the only exception being sugarcane. Production of foodgrains such as rice, pulses and coarse cereals is likely at 134.7 million tonnes in 2017-18, about...

-The Hindu Over the years we have lost over a lakh varieties of native rice. One district in Odisha is rediscovering some of them It is a balmy winter morning when I meet Kamli Bataraa, an ebullient Adivasi farmer, at her home in Belugan, in southern Odisha’s Koraput district. There is a hum across the village from the threshing of just-harvested paddy. When I ask Kamli about the rice varieties she grows,...

-The Telegraph Sikar (Rajasthan): A 13-day agitation by Rajasthan's farmers, joined by about 100 disc jockeys with sound systems blaring, has forced the Vasundhara Raje government to agree to loan waivers up to Rs 50,000 and payment of the full minimum support price. Some 15,000 farmers had gathered at a mandi in Sikar town, 115km from Jaipur, on September 1 and by the time the government buckled on September 13 night, their...